Rasmussen Poll: Have J6 Committee Hearings Moved the Needle?

As I've said, the Jan 6th hearings may have hurt Trump as a presidential candidate for 2024, but they haven't weakened the Republican Party. On the contrary, the Dems are doing the heavy lifting to keep Trump in the background...just what Mitch wants.

Have J6 Committee Hearings Moved the Needle?

Thursday, July 28, 2022

A special congressional committee has spent weeks holding televised hearings about the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, but with apparently little effect on public opinion.

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports finds that 34% of Likely U.S. voters say the House Select Committee’s hearings have made them more likely they’ll vote for Democrats in this fall’s congressional midterm elections. However, 30% say the Capitol riot hearings have made them more likely to vote for Republicans and 32% say the hearings have made much difference in how they’ll vote in November. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

According to Nielsen, about 17 million viewers tuned in for last Thursday’s primetime hearing of the House Select Committee. Twenty-nine percent (29%) of voters say they have watched most of the so-called J6 committee’s hearings, while 21% have watched some of the hearings. Twenty percent (20%) have watched not very much of the J6 hearings, and 28% have watched none of them.

Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters believe the Capitol riot represented a threat to American democracy, while 43% don’t think so and another 10% are not sure. These findings are only slightly changed from January, when 50% said the Capitol riot was a threat to democracy.

The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on July 24-25, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

The committee hearings also seem not to have done much to change the belief that inspired the Capitol riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters don’t think Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fairly – just slightly fewer than the 34% who said the same in January’s survey. Fifty-one percent (51%) now say Biden did win the 2020 election fairly, down from 52% in January.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of Republicans now do not think Biden was elected fairly, an opinion shared by 18% of Democrats and 47% of voters not affiliated with either major party. Seventy-six percent (76%) of Democrats believe Biden won the 2020 election fairly, as do 24% of Republicans and 40% of unaffiliated voters.

More Democrats (46%) than Republicans (17%) or unaffiliated voters (23%) say they have watched most of the televised J6 committee hearings. Forty-three percent (43%) of Republicans, 13% of Democrats and 29% of unaffiliated voters have watched none of the hearings.

Two-thirds (67%) of Democrats said the congressional hearings have made them more likely to vote for Democrats in this year’s congressional elections, while 56% of Republicans said the hearings made them more likely to vote for Republicans in November. Among unaffiliated voters, 28% said the hearings made them more likely to vote Republican, 26% said the hearings made them more likely to vote for Democrats and 40% said the hearings have not made much difference in how they’ll vote in November.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Democrats believe the Capitol riot represented a threat to American democracy, while 65% of Republicans don’t believe the riot was a threat to democracy. Among unaffiliated voters, 47% don’t believe the January 6 riot represented a threat to democracy, while 40% do think it was a threat.

Compared to both whites and other minorities, Black voters are most likely to believe Biden was elected fairly, to think the Capitol riot was a threat to democracy and to say the hearings made them more likely to vote for Democrats in November.

More women voters (50%) than men (44%) believe the Capitol riot represented a threat to American democracy.

Older voters are more likely than those under 40 to say they haven’t watched any of the televised hearings of the J6 committee. Voters under 40 were more likely to believe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fairly.

College graduates are more likely to say they’ve watched at least some of the J6 committee hearings and to believe the Capitol riot represented a threat to American democracy.

One obvious reason that the J6 committee hearings haven’t changed many minds is because Biden supporters are far more interested than other voters. Among voters who Strongly Approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 72% say they have watched most of the committee’s televised hearings. By contrast, among those who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s performance, only 10% have watched most of the hearings, while 54% haven’t watched any of the hearings.

Barely one-in-five voters think it would be good for Democrats if President Joe Biden seeks reelection in 2024, and most think Republicans are headed for victory in the November midterms.