Majority of Canadians hold Donald Trump responsible for Jan. 6 riots: poll – National

A new poll suggests that one in three Canadians are watching the January 6 hearings closely in the United States – and nearly three in four blame Donald Trump for the riots.

Leger’s online poll, conducted in August for the Association for Canadian Studies, found that 37% of respondents in Canada and 44% in the United States follow the hearings closely.

Just over half of US respondents, 54%, said the former president was responsible for the Capitol riots, compared to 72% in Canada.

The select committee investigating January 6 is scheduled to hold its next hearing on Wednesday, likely the last before the midterms in November.

The poll, which polled 1,509 respondents in Canada and 1,002 in the United States shortly after the July hearing, has no margin of error because online polls are not based on random samples.

A final report on the committee’s findings is expected before the end of the year, but it is unclear whether it will be released before Election Day on November 8.

Canadians’ level of interest in the hearings likely has more to do with a lingering fascination with Trump and his ever-changing legacy than anything else, said association president and CEO Jack Jedwab.

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The former president « left a bad feeling with most Canadians, » who were generally not supportive of his presidency or his impact on Canada-U.S. relations, Jedwab said.

« Trump is seen as someone who has soured relations between the two countries and as the object of considerable mistrust. »

The poll, which was conducted before Pierre Poilievre claimed leadership of the Conservative party, also broke down Canadian participants by political affiliation.

The People’s Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier’s far-right party, was the only party where a majority – 57% – said it wanted to see Trump run for president again in 2024, with 25% opposed and 18% opposed. refusing to comment.

Among conservatives, 28% said they would support Trump for the nomination, compared to 64% who disagreed. Opposition to a Trump candidacy has reached nearly 90% among Liberal, NDP and Green Party supporters, and reached 95% among Bloc Québécois supporters.

Since hearings began in June, the committee — led by Democratic Representative from Mississippi Bennie Thompson and Republican Representative from Wyoming Liz Cheney — has unfolded a narrative linking the riots to Trump’s White House.

That connection was reinforced on Sunday when former Denver committee member Riggleman told « 60 Minutes » of a Jan. 6 phone call between one of the rioters and someone in the White House.

« You get a real ‘Aha’ moment when you see the White House switchboard hooked up to a rioter’s phone while it’s happening, » Riggleman said. Who was on the phone at the White House remains a mystery, he added.

« The American people need to know that there are connections that need to be explored further. »

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Representative Jamie Raskin, a member of the committee, acknowledged this evidence on Sunday, calling it one of many clear links between the White House and the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6.

“We are interested in telling the big story, that this was an organized, premeditated and deliberate hit on the vice president and Congress to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” Raskin told “ Meet the Press ».

« What we’re going to do on Wednesday is fill in the details that have come to the committee’s attention over the past five or six weeks. »

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The committee could also detail what, if anything, it has learned from former Republican President Newt Gingrich and his role in promoting the defeated president’s ongoing allegations of voter fraud.

Thompson wrote to Gingrich earlier this month about evidence he said shows Gingrich « was involved in various other aspects of the plan to nullify the 2020 election and block the transfer of power, » including after January 6.

The riots, which grew out of a sprawling protest among Trump supporters the same day Congress certified Joe Biden’s election victory, provided a dramatic and deadly exclamation point for the most turbulent presidency in history. modern.

And the ratings, after exploding the idea that the chaos was just an out-of-control protest, turned out to be an unlikely summer blockbuster, thanks to the help of former ABC News president James Goldston.

The committee heard how Pence avoided a constitutional crisis by ignoring Trump’s demands to overturn the election results and remained on congressional grounds even as protesters violently demanded his ouster.

Members listened to former White House attorney Pat Cipollone’s account of a chaotic meeting of Trump’s fringe advisers, who were desperately looking for a way to keep the president in power, the night before.

That meeting included a draft executive order that would have made Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell a special advocate with the power to order the U.S. military to seize voting machines across the country.

After the meeting dissolved in frustration, the president posted his fateful late-night tweet drawing supporters to DC: “Will be wild,” he wrote.

And Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the committee how the president had urged the Secret Service to stop screening protesters for weapons, saying, « They’re not there. to hurt me. »

And she described hearing about a furious Trump rushing behind the wheel of his SUV when members of his Secret Service refused to take him to the Capitol.