Almost half of Republicans say Trump bears no blame for Jan. 6 — and that he likely won in 2020 – By Philip Bump (The Washington Post) / February 9, 2022
Assuming that truth is the ultimate victor in America’s quiet existential struggle between truth and falsehood, history books will record too obvious, almost anodyne facts. One is that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. The other is that he then tried to steal a second term anyway, an effort that included drawing thousands of people to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, to express their frustration at the members of Congress formalizing his loss.
Saying that he bears responsibility for all of the necessary conditions that contributed to the riot — the delusions about the election, the calls to attend, the encouragement of extremist groups — is not to say that he directly told people to break windows and beat police officers. But history will record that he still bears responsibility.
And yet nearly two-thirds of Republicans think that Trump probably or definitely won the election. And nearly 6 in 10 think he bears no responsibility at all for the violence and destruction of Jan. 6. In total, about half of Trump’s party hold both views.
