Thirteen percent (13%) of voters have a favorable opinion of those who broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that 77% have an unfavorable view.
Among those who prefer policies advocated by former President Trump, just 19% have a favorable opinion of those who broke into the Capitol. Sixty-one percent (61%) offer an unfavorable view.
Forty-five percent (45%) of voters consider the assault on the Capitol to be a major threat to democracy. That’s unchanged from last June.
However, 64% of voters believe letting government bureaucrats set rules without approval of Congress or voters is a major threat to democracy. That’s up nine points since the June, 2021 survey. The increase may be attributed to concerns about the pandemic response. Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters are now more worried about unnecessary government restrictions than they are about getting COVID.
Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters think it’s Very Likely that democracy in America will end in the next generation or so. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that total includes 11% who believe it has already ended. Republicans are significantly more worried about democracy ending than Democrats.
Additionally, 37% of all voters see Democrats as a bigger threat to democracy than Republicans. Twenty-six percent (26%) see Republicans as the bigger threat while 20% think the two parties represent an equal threat to democracy.
Currently, 57% of voters believe that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president in 2020. That’s little different than the 61% who believe Donald Trump was legitimately elected president in 2016. Just 26% of voters believe the proper winner was declared in each of those elections.
Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters believe activists and politicians in both political parties would steal an election if they could get away with it. Thirty-three percent (33%) disagree.
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Note: Neither Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com, nor RMG Research, Inc. have any affiliation with Rasmussen Reports. While Scott Rasmussen founded that firm, he left more than seven years ago and has had no involvement since that time.
Question 1:
Thinking back, do you approve or disapprove of the Trump supporters who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021?
5% Strongly approve
8% Somewhat approve
14% Somewhat disapprove
63% Strongly disapprove
10% Not sure
Question 2:
Think for a moment about the 74 million people who voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Did most Trump voters support those who occupied the Capitol, or were they opposed to such efforts?
26% Supported
38% Opposed
36% Not sure
Methodology
The survey of 1,000 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on January 3-4, 2022. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population.
The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 3.1 percentage points.