Report: Near Universal Support for Arresting U.S. Capitol Insurrectionists

The January 2021 Daily Kos/Civiqs Poll asked 1,609 registered voters in the United States about the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, challenges to the result of the 2020 presidential election, favorable ratings of GOP leaders, and more.

The Attack on the U.S. Capitol

On January 6, 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump, called to action at a Washington, D.C. rally, violently stormed the U.S. Capitol. The building was vandalized and five people died. The FBI has already identified over 200 suspects in connection with the attack.

Support for arresting the people who broke into the Capitol building is nearly universal: 93% of Americans want those responsible to be apprehended. Most (62%) believe that everyone who entered the building should be arrested; 31% think that people should be arrested if they injured others or caused property damage. Even 90% of Republicans support arrests, including 35% who are for arresting everyone who broke in.

Most Americans (60%) consider the events in the U.S. Capitol an act of terrorism. A slightly smaller majority (53%) call the attack on the Capitol a coup attempt. On both questions, Americans are divided starkly along partisan lines. While 93% of Democrats call it a terrorist attack, only 28% of Republicans agree. Similarly, 91% of Democrats believe it was a coup attempt, compared to 14% of Republicans.

Challenging the 2020 Presidential Election

At the time of the attack, members of Congress were meeting to certify Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. A group of Republican members, led by Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas objected to the electoral vote count, in support of President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election result.

A majority of Americans (54%) view the actions of the Republican members of Congress who tried to stop the certification as undermining democracy. Most Americans support removing Senators Hawley and Cruz from office for their role in the insurrection. Removal of Sen. Hawley is supported by a margin of 47%-40%. For Sen. Cruz, removal is supported 48%-45%.

Republicans, however -- even after the attack -- remain willing to believe President Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Fully 78% of Republicans say that the election was stolen. A similar number, 73% say that Republican objectors in Congress were not undermining democracy, but in fact protecting democracy. Fewer than 7% of Republican voters believe that Trump, Hawley, or Cruz should be removed from office as a consequence of their actions.

Leadership of the Republican Party

Donald Trump continues to be the most popular Republican national political leader among the Republican rank and file. Among Republicans, Trump’s favorable rating is 86%, compared to 65% for Vice President Mike Pence, 41% for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and just 23% for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who many Republicans blame for not sufficiently supporting Trump’s election challenges. Democrats hold uniformly negative views of Trump, Pence, McConnell, and McCarthy. Sen. McConnell’s overall favorability rating is near an all-time low of 11%.

Americans who voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election are more likely to consider themselves supporters of Donald Trump than supporters of the Republican Party. Voters who are foremost Trump supporters represent 30% of registered voters, compared to 15% who are Republican Party supporters first. Among Republican voters, 57% view themselves primarily as Trump supporters, compared to 36% who view themselves mainly as Republican Party supporters. Independents are even more aligned to Trump: 35% for Trump, 10% for the Republican Party.

Voters who think of themselves mainly as Trump supporters are even more likely than those who call themselves Republican Party supporters to believe that the election was stolen. Specifically, 92% of Trump supporters say the election was stolen, versus 68% of Republican Party supporters. These voters are also more likely to believe that members of Congress who challenged the electoral vote were acting in defense of democracy: 82% of Trump supporters said that the attempt to stop the certification was protecting democracy, versus 70% of Republican Party voters.

Civiqs surveyed 1,609 registered voters in the United States from January 15-18, 2021. The survey was conducted online, among selected members of the Civiqs research panel. Sampled individuals were emailed by Civiqs and responded using a personalized link to the survey at civiqs.com. The survey results are weighted by age, race, gender, education, party identification, and region to be representative of the population of registered voters in the United States. The general design effect due to weighting is 1.11. The survey has a margin of error of ±2.6% at the 95% confidence level, accounting for the design effect.