29 percent of GOP support efforts to charge accused Jan. 6 rioters: poll

A poll published Tuesday from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found a strong partisan divide in how people view federal efforts to arrest and try people accused of participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The poll showed 29 percent of Republicans supported those efforts, compared to 86 percent of Democrats.

Meanwhile, 52 percent of Republicans strongly or somewhat opposed those efforts, compared to 4 percent of Democrats.

Additionally, while 62 percent of Republicans called the people at the Capitol on Jan. 6 “protesters,” 68 percent of Democrats described them as “insurrectionists,” “white nationalists,” and “rioters,” according to the poll.

The survey also found that 71 percent of Republicans said President Biden’s victory was illegitimate, 83 percent of whom attributed that belief to “fraudulent ballots supporting Joe Biden” they said certain states counted.

“Given the continued questioning of Biden’s victory by prominent Republican elected officials, conservative media personalities and former President Trump, it is no surprise that 7 in 10 Republicans, conservatives and Trump voters view the results of the 2020 election with skepticism, if not outright disbelief,” Tatishe Nteta, a UMass Amherst professor who directed the poll, said in a statement.

The poll took place Dec. 14-20 and included 1,000 respondents. It had a margin of error of 3.1 points.