A growing number of Americans believe that Donald Trump should be charged with a felony in connection with his actions before, around and after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots.
As the January 6 selection panel continues its public television session, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday shows 58 percent of Americans believe he should be charged with a crime — an increase from April, when 52 percent of respondents thought so.
The poll, conducted June 17-18, shows that 40 percent don’t think he should face a formal charge, and 2 percent of poll respondents did not respond.
In April, when the same poll was conducted, 42 percent of respondents thought Trump should not be impeached and 6 percent did not answer.
The surge in those wanting the former president’s criminal referral comes after three days of public hearings, played on almost every newswave, that began in June and will continue throughout the month.
Nine panel members on the special committee — seven Democrats and two Republicans — have shared never-before-seen footage from the riots, as well as pre-taped and live interviews with former White House officials, depicting the event Trump knew he was doing in the presidential election not win in 2020.
Six in 10 Americans think the inquiry is fair and impartial, while 38 percent say it isn’t — a big change from the polls in April, when the public was 40-40 percent divided on the issue.
A new poll shows that 58% of Americans think Donald Trump should be charged with a crime related to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots
Respondents showed a 6% increase in those who want a referral for Trump from the same poll in April – before the publicly televised special committee hearings began on Jan. 6 earlier this month (pictured Thursday, June 9 2021).
Just two months ago, the poll showed that 20 percent of Americans had no opinion on the subject, but the public hearings must have changed that perception, because now only 2 percent of respondents skip the question.
Democratic panel member Jamie Raskin insisted Sunday that Trump has no regrets about his actions and would “do it again.”
The Maryland congressman told NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning he was essentially “confessing” his role and crime while continuing to deny that he lost the 2020 presidential election.
‘Does he confess?’ asked NBC host Chuck Todd.
“Yes,” Raskin replied. “He’s essentially saying, ‘Yes, I did it and I will do it again,’ and that’s what we were fighting about the whole time.”
“If you swear impunity for attempts at the unconstitutional seizure of power, which is a coup, invite it again in the future,” the Maryland Democratic congressman continued. “And to be a strong, self-sustaining, self-respecting democracy, we cannot allow the people to decide that they are above the law and that they are more important than our constitutional processes.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Jan. 6 panel, said Sunday that Trump would act no differently if he could repeat the event before and on the day of Jan. 6, 2021
WATCH: Former President Trump lashed out at the Jan. 6 Committee and former Vice President Mike Pence this week.@RepRaskin (D-Md.) tells #MTP “He’s essentially saying, yes, I did it and I will do it again.” pic.twitter.com/tuZGTdRndN
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 19, 2022
Trump wrote on his media site Truth Social on Sunday that he had “no question” he won the 2020 presidential election and said his thoughts that they were rigged and stolen “only got stronger.”
The comments come the same morning Trump posted on his Truth Social account blowing up the committee and its public television hearings – insisting he has evidence he won the 2020 presidential election, and says that “in my opinion” there is no doubt that he was the winner.
“The highly partisan unselected try, for whatever reason but only in bad faith, to create a FALSE narrative that ‘He (I) knew he lost the election.’ This is completely wrong,” Trump posted on his account on Sunday.
“I felt from the start that the election was rigged and stolen and have only grown in that belief with time and large amounts of additional evidence and evidence. In my opinion, I have & DID NOT HAVE A QUESTION, and MANY people would be willing to confirm this, but the unchosen don’t want to hear it……” he added.
The committee is holding its fourth of eight hearings on Tuesday and a fifth on Thursday as the seven Democrats and two Republicans scramble to complete proceedings ahead of the 2022 interim periods that are likely to turn the House red.
The second hearing last Monday attempted to prove that Trump knew he had lost the 2020 election but still made his allegations of fraud. Pictured: The Jan. 6 Select Committee held its third hearing on Thursday, June 16 and outlined the pressure campaign for Vice President Mike Pence to stop certification of the results
“I have sooo many witnesses for all the good, but the highly partisan and one-sided unelected committee of political hacks has no interest in hearing or seeing them,” the former president wrote in a separate post.
‘This witch hunt could all be ended quickly if they did!’
The third special committee hearing on Thursday focused on Trump’s pressure campaign to get Vice President Mike Pence to block Congress from confirming Electoral College findings.
The second aimed to show that Trump was fully aware that he had truly lost the election but continued to spread the “big lie” that there was widespread fraud and vote-rigging that led to Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump insists to this day that he is the real winner.
