A Washington Post–ABC News poll released Friday morning shows a majority of Americans want outgoing and twice-impeached President Donald Trump to face criminal charges for inciting the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol last week, an attack that left five people dead.
According to the new survey, 54% of Americans — including one in eight Republicans — feel that Trump “should be charged with the crime of inciting a riot” for delivering an unhinged speech ahead of the attack urging his supporters to march on Capitol Hill and “show strength.”
“You’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump said as Congress prepared to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. “The radical left knows exactly what they were doing. They are ruthless and it’s time that somebody did something about it.”
While Trump earlier this week denied any responsibility for the mob attack and claimed his remarks were “totally appropriate,” the Post-ABC poll found that 57% of Americans believe the lame-duck president bears a “great deal” or a “good amount” of blame for the deadly invasion of the Capitol Building.
The survey also found that 56% of Americans want the Senate to remove Trump and bar him from holding office again in the future.
The poll results come two days after the Democrat-controlled House on Wednesday made Trump the first-ever U.S. president to be impeached twice, approving by a 232-197 vote a resolution charging him with “inciting violence against the government of the United States.”
With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refusing to reconvene the Senate early to begin the trial before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has yet to transmit the article of impeachment to the upper chamber, leaving the timeline for the beginning of the conviction proceedings unclear.
“Calling the Senate back into session, convicting Trump, and removing him from office for inciting insurrection can’t wait,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, tweeted Thursday. “Mitch McConnell needs to act now.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
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