An overwhelming majority of Republicans said President Donald Trump deserves no blame for the January 6 Capitol riot, while most of them were also still skeptical of President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the November election.
More than three-quarters of Republicans surveyed by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist College (78 percent) said they do not trust the results of the 2020 presidential election. That massive percentage comes in spite of Trump's own administration declaring the election process to be the "most secure in American history." And 82 percent of those same GOP voters believed Trump deserves "not very much" or no blame at all for his role in inciting the deadly Capitol riots—a charge the House of Representatives impeached him for on Wednesday.
One major divide, even among Republicans, is the much higher percentage of those with college degrees saying they trust the election results versus non-college graduates who have little trust. Similarly, 67 percent of nonwhites trusted the election results compared to a thin majority of whites who said the same.
As of Saturday, just four days before Biden's inauguration in Washington, Trump has still not conceded defeat or even expressed any acceptance of the election results.
Both beliefs among Republicans were far higher than the average American public, where majorities have said both trust that Biden handily defeated Trump and that the president deserves at least some blame for the deadly Capitol riot.
Overall, a 58 percent majority of Americans said Trump deserves either a "great deal" or "good amount" of blame for the violence at the U.S. Capitol. Much of the split was along partisan lines, with 92 percent of Democrats blaming Trump compared to 82 percent of Republicans who do not. A majority of independent voters also blamed the president for the violence, according to this latest survey.
The poll of 1,012 registered voters between January 11 and January 13 found that 60 percent of Americans trusting that the results of the presidential election were accurate, compared to 38 percent who do not. Only half of white Americans without a college degree believed Trump lost to Biden. There were also large generational divides, with a 68 percent majority of millennials and Generation Z trusting the election results compared to just 51 percent of Generation X.
Social media queries in the survey found about three-quarters of Democrats saying Silicon Valley companies like Facebook and Twitter should continue to restrict Trump's use of their platforms, compared to 79 percent of Republicans who said they should not. Independents were in agreement with Republicans on that issue.
Newsweek reached out to members of the Trump campaign as well as the Biden transition team Saturday for additional remarks.
