In another blow for the Democratic impeachment of former President Donald Trump, a majority of voters agree that no public official should be punished for claiming the 2020 election was “stolen,” an issue at the heart of the Senate trial of the former president.
In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey that found deep division between Democrats and Republicans over whether President Biden won the election fairly, 54% said that those who have been saying the Democrats stole the election should not be punished.
The survey did not detail what it meant by punishment, but Trump was impeached over his monthslong claims of voter and election fraud, which Democrats charged incited crowds to riot in the U.S. Capitol. And many Republicans have faced attacks for fighting impeachment and challenging the election results.
For two months after the election, Trump supporters led a #StoptheSteal effort backed and encouraged by Trump.
His claims, dubbed false in the media, prompted several top aides to quit before and after the riots. In a Washington Examiner interview today, former communications adviser Alyssa Farah, who resigned before the protests, said, “The election was not stolen, we lost.”
Rasmussen said, “A majority say public figures should not be punished for saying the 2020 election was stolen. Only 35% of voters say public figures should be punished for saying the election was stolen, while 54% say they should not, and 11% are not sure.”
Losing politicians for decades have claimed their victory was stolen. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was shocked in losing her 2016 bid to Trump, said, for example, “You can run the best campaign … and you can have the election stolen from you.”
The poll suggested that those attacking Trump for encouraging challenges to the election are out of touch with voters, though there was the usual political division in the results.
What’s more, the new survey said that only 57% believe that Biden won fairly. But 61% of Republicans said he didn’t.
Rasmussen found little change over time in the results. According to the analysis, “The percentage of voters who believe Biden won the 2020 election fairly has not increased much since early January. At that time, 55% percent of voters said Biden had been elected fairly, 39% said he had not. In that January survey, 69% of GOP voters said Biden had not won the presidential election fairly.”
