This week, two new polls of New Jersey colleges shed light on the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 and reactions to both it and the House of Representatives investigation. which followed New Jerseyans and all Americans.
The Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Wednesday found that 56% of New Jersey residents viewed the incident as an “insurgency and a threat to democracy”, while 16% felt it was an “event unfortunate” which is now a thing of the past and should be removed. underline.
Previously, a Monmouth University survey on Tuesday found that 38% of people polled across the country believed former President Donald Trump was directly responsible for the event, a further 25% believed he had at least encouraged those involved and 33% believed Trump had done nothing wrong.
While this was the first time Rutgers had explored this line of questioning regarding Jan. 6, Monmouth said the percentages measured for blame for the attack hadn’t really changed since the House hearings began.
Respondents seem to have the big picture, according to the director of the Monmouth University Survey Institute, Patrick Murray.
“The Democrats and Republicans have already decided what happened before this investigation even started,” Murray said. The only number we’ve seen that’s really moved is just overall confidence in the American system of government.”
January 6 and the Future of American Democracy
In the Monmouth poll, 25% said the congressional inquiry had strengthened American democracy, 34% said democracy had been weakened, and 35% felt no change.
But half of Americans now think their system of government is “fundamentally sound”, which Murray said was the first time that level had been reached since before the 2020 election.
“The House committee really had no impact on changing anyone’s mind about what happened, whether it was January 6th or the 2020 election in general,” he said. he declared.
Was the 2020 election legit?
Regarding this election, Rutgers found that 60% of New Jersey residents believe Jan. 6 was an attempt to nullify a legitimate election and 25% said it was to prevent a fraudulent election.
Democrats leaned overwhelmingly toward the first option while Republicans were more mixed, according to Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling.
“Partisanship permeates virtually every issue we talk about these days, especially something like this that shows how we view our two-party system,” Koning said. “Of course, we see that there are strong partisan divisions when we analyze this. Republicans, Democrats and independents are concerned about the future of American democracy.”
At this point, majorities of Democrats (69%), independents (53%) and Republicans (51%) in the Garden State told Rutgers they were “very” worried, Koning said.
Does New Jersey care about the congressional investigation?
As the House investigation continues, most New Jerseyans have tuned into the hearings so far — 27% quite, Rutgers found, and 29% somewhat.
But 16% follow slightly less closely, and more than a quarter of the state (27%) didn’t watch at all.
Update: Arrests in New Jersey during US Capitol riot on January 6
A year later, more than 20 people from New Jersey were charged with participating in the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol.
Patrick Lavery is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at [email protected]
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