Majority of Americans want Trump criminally charged

A new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News finds a majority of Americans want Donald Trump to face criminal charges for instigating the attack on the US Capitol. Some important additional details from the poll:

• 9 in 10 Americans oppose the “storming of the Capitol” with 80% “strongly” opposing it.
• 20% of Republicans place “a great deal” or “a good amount” of blame on Trump for the insurrection.
• Fully 42% of Republicans view him as at least partly to blame.
• 2/3 of all Americans believe Trump behaved irresponsibly by lying about the election results.

The 42% of Republicans who place some blame on Trump should also be read in context: While there is no evidence of election fraud, and most Americans recognize Trump has spread dangerous lies, more than half of Republicans still believe those lies. 66% of Republicans, according to this poll, say they believe there is significant evidence of widespread fraud.

Election officials in all states, every state and federal court asked to examine the question, and Trump’s own Attorney General all confirm there is no evidence of widespread fraud. Cyber security officials also said the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history”.

Parsing the numbers a bit, this poll suggest that at least 1/5 Republicans who believe there is election fraud also blame Trump, at least partly, for the attack on the Capitol. Given that more than 60 lawsuits have failed for lacking evidence of fraud, and all state-level audits and recounts have found the results were accurate, the number of Republicans who hold Trump accountable is likely understated in these results.

The impeachment trial in the Senate will take place with more than half the country viewing Trump as criminally liable, and nearly half of Republicans viewing Trump as at least partly responsible.