Poll: Democrats’ 1/6 Primetime Special Hasn’t Swayed Anyone

Dylan HousmanJune 22, 2022

A new YouGov poll indicates that the January 6th Committee’s primetime hearings and widespread news coverage isn’t making a big impact on how Americans view the 2021 Capitol riot.

The poll found that 41% of Americans say former President Donald Trump bears “a lot” of responsibility for his supporters taking over the Capitol, with an additional 11% saying he bears “some” responsibility. That represents very little change from YouGov’s findings in the immediate aftermath of the riot last January, when their tracking poll found that 44% of Americans said Trump bears “a lot” of responsibility for the event.

NEW – 1/6 committee chair Bennie Thompson tells small group of reporters there won’t be any more hearings in June after Thursday and then “the next two hearings will be later in July.”

More tk w/ @kyledcheney

— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) June 22, 2022

The latest poll surveyed 1,500 adult American citizens between June 18-21, with a margin of error of 2.9%.

Part of the committee’s problem may be that many Americans simply aren’t tuning in. Just 29% of respondents said they’ve watched at least one entire hearing or parts of a hearing, with an additional 18% saying they’ve seen some clips or highlights. Those who do watch may have their minds made up already: 2020 Biden voters were five times as likely to watch the full hearings than Trump voters, according to YouGov. Democrats were more than four times as likely as Republicans and two and half times as likely as independents to have watched a full hearing, and only 19% of self-described conservatives had watched some or all of a hearing, compared to 41% of self-described liberals.

Only 26% of Americans said they planned to watch any of the future hearings. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Ginni Thomas Says She Looks ‘Forward To Talking To’ January 6 Committee, Wants To ‘Clear Up Misconceptions’)

Early television ratings of the primetime-broadcasted first night of hearings indicated that around 20 millions Americans watched.