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07th Jan 2021

Almost half of Republicans approve of storming Capitol building

A snap poll conducted by YouGov in the aftermath of the scenes at the US Capitol building reveals 45 per cent of Republicans approve of the violence

Reuben Pinder

One in five voters approve of the scenes on Wednesday

Almost half of Republican voters approve of the violent scenes on Wednesday night as Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC, a new poll shows.

A snap poll conducted by YouGov reveals the majority of voters disapprove of the violence, but a worryingly high number of voters condone, or even approve of it.

21 per cent of voters across the board approve of Trump supporters storming with Capitol, while that number rises to 45 per cent when only looking at responses from Republican voters.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, that number rises to 56 per cent among those who believe Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud.

On the flip side, 62 per cent of voters see the events of Wednesday night as a threat to democracy. Among Democrat voters, that number rises to 96 per cent. Not sure who the other four per cent are.

Alarmingly, though maybe not surprisingly, 68 per cent of Republicans do not consider storming the Capitol building and trying to suppress the result of a legitimate election as a threat to democracy.

With regards to who should be held responsible for the actions of Trump’s supporters in DC, a slim majority of registered voters blame the outgoing president. But among Republican voters, 53 per cent attribute no blame at all to Donald Trump.

And finally, voters are split over whether it would be appropriate to remove Trump from office immediately. 50 per cent believe it would, while seven per cent don’t know, and 42 per cent do not agree that he should be removed.

Impeachment documents have been drawn up by Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, she announced on Twitter following the violence.

“We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfil our oath,” she wrote.