Majority of Americans Blame Jan 6th on White Supremacists, Trump and Conservative Media: POLL

(Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

According to a new poll from PRRI, the majority of Americans place blame for the capitol riots of January 6th on white supremacist groups, former President Donald Trump, and conservative media outlets, meanwhile, the data shows that strong partisan divides continue to persist.

The poll released Wednesday finds that majorities of the American general public believe that all of these factors shoulder a vast amount of responsibility for the actions of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.

59 percent of Americans say white supremacist groups bear responsibility for the riot, while 56 percent say Donald Trump, and 55 percent say conservative media outlets also played a part in inciting by spreading misinformation.

However, the poll includes data that points to the current partisan divide of opinions within the American public.

Republicans assigned culpability in a drastically different way than most Americans, with only 30 percent holding white supremacist groups responsible and 27 percent placing blame on conservative media platforms.

Only 15 percent of Republicans believe that Trump bears a large amount of responsibility for the events of January 6th.

According to the survey, “Republicans’ blame attributions vary by which media sources they trust most to provide accurate information about politics and current events.”

Of those who trust Fox News and conservative outlets, such as Newsmax and One America News Network, only 3 percent say that Trump bears a lot of the blame for the riot.

Furthermore, Fox News viewers are more likely than far-right news viewers to place blame on white supremacist groups at 25 percent and 17 percent, respectively. 21 percent of Fox News viewers blame conservative media outlets that spread conspiracy theories, while only 15 percent of far-right news viewers do the same.

Far-right news viewers are also more likely to, “falsely assert that a lot of blame goes to liberal or left-wing activists for the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, though both groups overwhelmingly hold this view.”

By contrast, 89 percent of Democrats assign a large amount of responsibility to Trump, 83 percent to white supremacist groups, and 78 percent to conservative media platforms spreading misinformation.

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