In The Hill today, Celine Castronuovo reports on the poll (also via Mediate.com) taken this week in YouGov Direct, demonstrating viewpoints of citizens on the subject of the violence that took place at the U.S. Capitol last week. A question that was not asked, and we believe it should be polled, is do citizens feel the Media is partly to blame? The news reports all state what has happened and include reactions from selected legislators. What the news reports fail to answer is “why” citizens in this country were so angry that they would resort to violence. Do they feel that “freedom of the press” has not been so free after all? That what we are subjected to as citizens is an attempt to manipulate our country’s thought patterns through the use of heterosuggestion? If you watch the video of the rally there were many speakers and we believe that none of them anticipated violence. How can Leslie Stall of CBS 60 Minutes grant an interview with Nancy Pelosi on how she has been affected, and the White House legal team headed by Rudy Guiliani were not granted any opportunity to address the public on what they accumulated in their investigation on Election disparities? American’s are not stupid. In a recent Washington Times article, Christopher Vondracek reports that “more than 4 out of 5 Americans (86%) say that news organizations advocate political viewpoints rather than report the news free of bias.” And when close to 50% of the voter population feels that their candidate is not receiving a fair opportunity by these media outlets, tempers are going to flair (like a lid flying off of a pressure cooker) and problems are going to arise. News outlets have a responsibility and they also should be held accountable. Here’s the report:
A majority of Republican voters surveyed in a new YouGov Direct poll believe that President-elect Joe Biden is to blame for the group of President Trump’s supporters who stormed the Capitol Wednesday.
The poll, which surveyed nearly 1,450 registered voters on the events at the Capitol, found that among Republicans, 52 percent identified Biden as the biggest culprit, rather than Trump himself.
Comparatively, just 26 percent of Republican voters blamed the president for inciting the violence, while another 26 percent pointed fingers at congressional Republicans who vowed to block the official tally of Biden’s presidential win.
Ahead of the events at the Capitol, Trump urged protesters at a rally earlier Wednesday to march on Capitol Hill as lawmakers met for the final, official count of Electoral College votes affirming Biden as the next president. Trump for weeks has repeated unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was “fraudulent” and “stolen.”
Both GOP and Democratic lawmakers alike held Trump responsible for Wednesday’s events, especially following a since-removed video the president shared on Twitter in which he repeated false claims of a stolen election when urging his supporters to act peacefully.
Despite the view of Biden’s responsibility among a large portion of Republicans, a majority of all voters surveyed in the YouGov poll, 55 percent, said that Trump is “a great deal to blame.”
Republicans were also divided in their support for Wednesday’s events, with 45 percent of registered GOP voters saying they actively supported the actions of the demonstrators, with 43 percent opposing.
Among all voters, nearly two-thirds, or 63 percent, said they “strongly” opposed the actions of those who stormed the Capitol, and 62 percent said they viewed the events as a threat to democracy.
While 59 percent of voters who were aware of Wednesday’s events at the Capitol said they viewed them as more violent than peaceful, 58 percent of Republicans said the opposite, believing the actions of protesters were largely peaceful.
On Thursday, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, D.C. identified dozens of people they are accusing of “unlawful entry” at the Capitol, which forced lawmakers, staff and reporters to flee the area.
Police announced Wednesday after many of the rioters dispersed that four people had died, including one woman who was shot by a Capitol Police officer. The three other fatalities occurred due to “separate medical emergencies.”
Fifty-two people were arrested, and police also discovered two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee.
Talks have also grown among lawmakers to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office as a result of Wednesday’s events, including Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)
Among voters surveyed in YouGov’s poll, 50 percent agree with immediately removing Trump from office, while 42 percent see such a move as inappropriate. Meanwhile, 85 percent of Republicans strongly oppose the move.
The survey, conducted in the early evening Wednesday, reported a 3.3 percent margin of error.
- 01/11/2021
- Celine Castronuovo
