The House committee's hearings about the Capitol riot on January 6 did everything it could to grab Americans' attention to what they said proved former President Donald Trump was directly responsible for what happened in 2021, going as far as to hold some of the hearings during primetime hours.
A new poll from Monmouth University shows much of the committee's effort did not amount to much in convincing skeptical Americans.
"In general, public opinion stands pretty much the same as it was before recent headline-grabbing testimony of former presidential aides during the last three public hearings. This is true of both Trump’s culpability in the attack on the Capitol and claims of election fraud. In fact, Trump’s favorability rating is nearly identical to where it stood immediately after the 2020 election, and 4 in 10 Americans would lean toward backing a comeback bid in 2024."
The Monmouth University poll found before the hearings 65 percent of Americans saw what happened on January 6 was a riot, after the hearings that number went down slightly to 64 percent. When it comes to viewing the day's event as an "insurrection," 52 percent of Americans agree with that assessment after the hearings, up from 50 percent before. The number of Americans who say Trump was responsible went down following the hearings, from 42 percent to 38 percent.
The hearings' creditability was severely tarnished after elevating former Mark Meadows aid Cassidy Hutchinson to be a star witness only for her most outlandish claims to be called into question and it being revealed Hutchinson viewed the January 6 Committee to be a witch hunt.
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