‘Sympathy’ surging for Jan. 6 rioters, 43% agree ‘they had a point’

An increasingly divided America is starting to show support for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters, with over four-in-10 believing that they had a point or acted appropriately in forcefully disagreeing with Congress’s certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.

In the latest Suffolk University/USA Today poll, “sympathy” for the rioters has surged for the hundreds who swarmed the Capitol the day Congress and former Vice President Mike Pence agreed that Biden won the 2020 election fair and square.

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“The survey, which was completed shortly before the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Trump, showed sympathy for the rioters has increased among the voting public over the past several years,” said Suffolk’s analysis.

“Only 48% of voters overall said they thought the rioters were ‘criminals,’ a significant drop from the 70% of voters who thought so in a Suffolk survey conducted just weeks after the attacks. Those who agreed that ‘they went too far, but they had a point’ rose to 37% from 24%, and 6% called their actions ‘appropriate,’ when in 2021 just 2% did,” it added.

Saturday marks the third anniversary of the riots, and there are small events planned in Washington to note it. In the meantime, the Justice Department is continuing to round up over 1,000 it suspects of being involved.

Those who support the protesters just released a time-stamped video of the riots. They said the video provided better context for the actions of the rioters that day. The video is especially notable because it provides a new and clearer angle to the shooting death of protester Ashli Babbitt by a U.S. Capitol Police officer.

The survey was a deep dive into how voters view the upcoming presidential election. It found deep division among voters, especially between pro-Trump, MAGA voters and those who back Biden.

On the subject of election integrity, for example, 81% of Democrats have faith that the upcoming election and vote counting will go well. But 52% of pro-Trump voters do not.

And many voters expressed concern about American democracy, an issue Biden and Trump plan to play up in attempting to take each other down.

“The poll found that fears about the future of democracy extend across party lines, with the vast majority of voters expressing concerns, although for different reasons. More than eight in 10 voters (83%) said they worry about threats to democracy in the United States. Top responses about the greatest threat included Donald Trump (18%), government corruption/dysfunction (10%), and immigration/open borders (8%). Asked which party is more responsible for threatening democracy, 40% of respondents said Democrats and 40% said Republicans,” said Suffolk’s release.

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And while there is some new sympathy for the rioters, there wasn’t a big shift in how voters view Trump’s involvement. Still, the poll showed a dead heat in the 2024 race, with Trump at 44% and Biden at 43%.

Biden appears assured to be the Democratic nominee, as is typical for an incumbent. Trump is running against a handful of challengers, including a top former aide, but leads all by wide margins in state primaries and caucuses.