It’s easy to forget, but in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, there was a political consensus: The deadly insurrectionist attack was worthy of condemnation.
Even Donald Trump agreed. As regular readers may recall, the day after the riot, the then-president said, “Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem.” After describing the violence as a “heinous attack,” the Republican added, “The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy…. To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction: You do not represent our country, and to those who broke the law: You will pay.”
In the months that followed, too many Republicans tried to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, recasting the villains as the heroes and law enforcement as the antagonists. Trump gradually changed his mind about making the rioters “pay,” eventually cheering the attackers and characterizing them as victims who are “being persecuted so unfairly.”
As the Pew Research Center found in its latest national survey, GOP voters continue to take their cues from their party: When Republican leaders said they wanted to hold the rioters accountable, the base agreed. Now that party leaders have changed their mind, rank-and-file voters have also changed their minds.
As the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol ramps up its investigation into the events of that day, most Americans continue to say it is important to find and prosecute those who broke into and rioted at the Capitol. However, since March, there has been a decline in the share of the public saying it is important that those who broke into the Capitol be prosecuted (from 87% to 78%), with the change coming almost entirely among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
In March, 79 percent of GOP voters agreed that it was “important” that “federal law enforcement agencies find and prosecute” the Jan. 6 attackers. Now, that total has dropped to 57 percent.
Narrowing the focus, six months ago, 50 percent of Republicans agreed it was “very important” to charge the rioters. This month, the number has been cut nearly in half to 27 percent.
This is not in line with broader national trends: Among Democrats and independents, there’s been little change in attitudes. But among rank-and-file GOP voters, the shift has been dramatic.
The Pew Research Center went on to ask whether the attack on the Capitol has received too little attention or too much. Naturally, a majority of Democrats said the riot deserved more attention, while a majority of Republicans said the opposite.
The moral of the story is obvious: The more GOP leaders saw value in downplaying the importance of the attack, the more the party turned to an outrageous public-relations strategy. The data suggests that strategy worked exactly as intended.
