Majority of Republicans think Trump should run again in 2024 and think Biden ‘stole’ election from him
MOST Republicans believe Donald Trump should run again in 2024 and are convinced Joe Biden stole the election, according to new data.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, Trump remains the most popular figure within the party, with eight in 10 supporters continuing to hold a favorable impression of him.
Three months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn his November election loss, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest.
The same proportion also believes the event was the handiwork of left-wing activists “trying to make Trump look bad”.
And six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that November’s presidential election “was stolen” from him because of widespread voter fraud.
Meanwhile, the same proportion of Republicans think he should run again in 2024, the March 30-31 poll showed.
Hundreds of Trump’s supporters, mobilized by the former president’s unproven claims of a stolen election, climbed walls of the Capitol building and smashed windows to gain entry while lawmakers were inside voting to certify Biden’s election victory.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump said the rioters posed zero threat.
Other prominent Republicans, such as Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, have publicly doubted whether Trump supporters were behind the riot.
Right after the deadly Capitol siege, 147 Republican lawmakers voted against certifying Biden’s election win.
Last month, 12 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against a resolution honoring Capitol Police officers who defended the grounds during the rampage.
One lawmaker said he objected to using the word “insurrection” to describe the incident.
The window for the Republican Party to distance itself from Trump seems to have passed
Tim Miller, a former spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush
The poll shows that although 59 per cent of all Americans say Trump bears some responsibility for the attack, only three in 10 Republicans agree.
Eight in 10 Democrats and six in 10 independents reject the false claims that the Capitol siege was “mostly peaceful” or it was staged by left-wing protestors.
Congressional Republicans have assessed they need to max out the Trump vote to win, said Tim Miller, a former spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush.
He said: “That that is the path back to the majority.”
But Republicans in Congress show few signs of breaking with Trump.
Mr Miller said: “The window for the Republican Party to distance itself from Trump seems to have passed.”
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Last week, Republican congressman Jim Banks of Indiana said the party must cater to the working-class voters that comprise Trump’s political base ahead of next year’s critical midterm elections that will dictate control of Congress.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States.
It gathered responses from 1,005 adults between March 30-31.
The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 4 percentage points.