In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, there seemed at least a slim chance that the Republican Party would finally come to its senses. The rioters that former President Donald Trump had urged toward Congress to threaten the electoral vote counting had left GOP stalwarts shaken. It was a window for finally rejecting Trump and the lies he’d been peddling about widespread fraud in the 2020 election against Joe Biden.
But that window quickly closed as Republicans shifted into a defensive stance. Three years later, Trump is the front-runner to claim the GOP nomination for the third election in a row. And a new poll from The Washington Post and University of Maryland shows that Republican voters are more sympathetic than ever toward the Jan. 6 mob and the man who pushed them into action. And while it’s tempting to place the blame for that solely on Trump’s shoulders and the MAGA faithful, the supposed “moderate” wing of the Republican Party shares complicity in these results.
As my colleague Steve Benen pointed out on Tuesday, one of the most troubling findings in the poll is that Republican support for Trump’s election lies have trended in the wrong direction for the country. When asked last month, only 31% of self-identified Republicans told pollsters that they believe Biden’s election was legitimate. That’s down from 39% of Republicans in a poll the Post conducted in December 2021.
That drop can be partially chalked up to the continuing reach of the conspiracy theories that Trump circulated after losing the election in 2020. Far-right politicians and media figures also boosted claims that would exonerate Trump, no matter how outlandish. Even fully debunked claims like the idea that Georgia election workers were pulling fake ballots out of suitcases are still canon events among Republicans, according to voters the Post interviewed.
And then there’s former Fox New host Tucker Carlson’s selective editing of security…
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