The Biden administration carefully plotted every detail of their attack on Public Enemy #1 – former President Donald Trump. From carefully vetting Trump-hating judges and prosecutors to ensuring trials were held in blue states and increasing the number of charges to ensure something would “stick,” no detail of Trump’s indictments was left to chance.
But the public is turning against the Democrats in ways they couldn’t have foreseen.
In a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll conducted in December 2021, 60% of Americans believed that Trump bore responsibility for the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A repeat poll from December 2023 reveals that only 50% of Americans still believe Trump was responsible for the events of that day.
As expected, the drop in Americans blaming Trump for January 6 comes primarily, but not exclusively, from Republicans. Only 14% of Republicans polled agree that the GOP frontrunner was responsible for January 6, down from 27% in 2021.
Surprisingly, though, Democrats are shifting their opinions, too. In 2021, 92% of Democrat respondents held Trump responsible for the riots. Per the most recent data, that figure has dropped to 86%.
While half of Americans feel Trump is guilty of “instigating the riot” on January 6, less than half believe he should be barred from seeking election in 2024. Only 46% believe that his actions should disqualify him from the presidency. Additionally, 33% consider the issue irrelevant to his candidacy.
Many individuals expressed that their shift of opinion reflects their suspicions that the government and law enforcement agencies staged the riots, citing information gathered from attendees and evidence from newly released video footage.
Biden and the Democrat machine have consistently billed January 6 as “an unprecedented attack on democracy,” with 55% of polled Democrats agreeing. But 70% of Republicans think Democrats have overplayed the incident and believe that it’s “time to move on.”
The poll found that Republicans are shifting their views of the riot as a “violent attack,” with only 18% now characterizing January 6 as “mostly violent.” This marks a significant decrease from 26% who called it a “violent protest” in 2021. On the other hand, 77% of Democrats still label the incident as “mostly violent.”
While voters are softening their views regarding Trump’s role in the January 6 incident, more Americans now believe the 2020 election was stolen. In December 2021, 69% of Americans believed Biden was legitimately elected, but that figure has decreased to 62% in 2023. Over one-third, or 36%, of Americans now believe Biden’s victory was stolen.
The majority of Americans, 56%, believe that Donald Trump is likely “guilty of a criminal conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 election results through claims of voter fraud. This includes 40% who strongly believe he is “definitely guilty.” Opinions on this matter are divided along partisan lines, with nearly 9 in 10 Democrats believing that Trump is guilty and 70% believing that he is innocent.
A separate poll by the New York Times in early December deals a devastating blow to Democrats. Most people haven’t been paying attention to Trump’s legal battles. Even during the heavily publicized one-sided “January 6 committee” hearings, 24% of Americans said they weren’t following the “investigations.”
The charges against Trump include seeking to overturn the 2020 election, alleged mishandling of classified documents, and hush-money payments to a porn star in 2016. In all, Democrats have managed to line up four indictments and 91 felony counts against Trump. But Americans stopped caring. Approximately half of the voters surveyed admitted to paying little or no attention to Trump’s legal woes.
The level of attention varies across party lines, with Democrats generally paying more attention than Republicans or independent voters. In other words, the only votes Democrats are buying through the political pageantry of their pre-determined court battles were the ones they already had in the bank.
Americans have little patience for being beaten into submission by Democrats, whether it’s COVID-19 or Trump indictments. Either despite their best efforts or because of them, America just doesn’t care anymore. Biden should take note – it’s time to retire this one-trick pony.
