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In a new poll released by ABC and the Washington Post, a majority of Americans condemn the actions undertaken by rioters at the US Capitol on January 6. A much smaller majority says that they believe President Donald Trump bears some responsibility for the attack. Trump, for his own part, has denied any culpability, stating that he was shocked by the violence and asked the rioters to disperse peacefully.
Since January 6, Trump’s political stock has plummeted. During the House’s second impeachment of the president this week, some ten Republicans joined House Democrats in voting to impeach a member of their own party. Likewise, Mitch McConnell, who will soon be Senate Minority Leader, has expressed that he is open to hearing the prosecution’s case during the Senate trial over the impeachment. That he would not simply dismiss the endeavor out of hand speaks volumes to how divided the Republican party is.
The cracks appearing in the GOP as some lawmakers seek to defend the president and others leap at a chance to hold him accountable for the Capitol attack has given many members of the party political whiplash. While President Trump continues to enjoy the support of the majority of Republicans, GOP lawmakers seem more divided than ever in how to handle the fallout of the January 6 riot.
The Post/ABC poll shows that some 56 percent of American adults want the Senate to vote to remove Donald Trump from office in the impeachment trial. As a matter of practicality, this will not mean much immediately. By the time this vote is cast, Donald Trump will have surely already left office. Joe Biden is scheduled to be sworn in on January 20.
However, voting to remove will result in Trump being unable to hold any future office. The poll shows very few Republicans support such a move: only twelve percent of Republicans think this is the right thing for Congress to do. On the national level, only 42 percent of Americans think that Trump should not be removed from office.
The question now becomes: Are GOP Senators willing to publicly break with the president? Once he is no longer in office, Trump will have notably less political clout than he currently does. His social media presence is all but gone, with Twitter, Facebook and numerous other outlets pulling the president’s pages down. As such, some Senators might feel more uninhibited in opposing a president they may blame for losing them the House, Senate and presidency in the course of four short years.
