WASHINGTON — Most Texans remained unswayed in their beliefs about former President Donald Trump and the attack on the Capitol after the Jan. 6 House Committee hearings.
Only 20% of Texans surveyed said the hearings changed their mind about what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6. But only 28% said Trump did nothing wrong regarding that day, while 70% say he was directly or at least encouraged those involved, according to a new Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll.
Roughly 18 million people watched the final prime-time committee hearing, and each one garnered an average of 13 million views, according to Bloomberg. However, it’s too early to tell if the committee succeeded in changing the minds of Republicans, and demonstrated a clear connection between the attack on the Capitol and Trump.
The hearings focused on key events and communications before, during and after Jan. 6. These included the planning by far-right extremist groups, Trump allies’ efforts to discredit the 2020 election results and the inaction during the 187 minutes between him telling his supporters to march on the Capitol at the Stop the Steal rally and his eventual calls for people to go home.
Amanda Moreno of Houston is one of the Republicans who believes Trump bears some responsibility for the events of Jan. 6. She said she voted for Trump in 2020, however, she believes he was enticing his supporters to storm the Capitol, and should face consequences for what happened.
“This is our Capitol, this is what America stands for. And if we allow anybody to just storm, that area, our Capitol, I mean, what does that say about us as a nation?” Moreno asked. “What does that say about him as our president?”
However, she said she immediately realized Trump’s actions were wrong after seeing the attack on the Capitol and that the Jan. 6 hearings had little influence on her perception.
Despite her feelings about Jan. 6, Moreno said if the 2024 election came down to President Joe Biden or Trump, she would still vote for Trump again.
The poll demonstrated many Republicans remained unchanged in their beliefs about Jan. 6, and did not fault Trump.
Brian O’Neil of Houston said initially he thought police had essentially invited the rioters into the Capitol by removing barricades. However, shortly after as more information became available, he said the level of damage and injuries sustained changed his mind about the severity.
The Jan. 6 committee hearings, on the other hand, had little influence on him. O’Neil said it came off as a politically motivated attack on Trump, and while he felt the former president could have done things differently, he could not be blamed for the riots.
O’Neil added that he isn’t the biggest Trump supporter and would prefer to see someone like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis running as the Republican presidential candidate in 2024.
O’Neil also said he paid little attention to the hearings and considered Jan. 6 a far lower priority than other political issues, such as the economy and the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The Johnny Depp hearing got more of my attention than the January 6 hearing,” O’Neil said, referring to the defamation case between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
While only 32% of Democrats said the hearings changed their mind, 77% find Trump directly responsible.
For Texans like Laurie Richardson of Frisco, the hearings may not have changed her mind because she already believed the attack was caused by Trump, and felt he had the power to stop the riot at any moment. Still, she said she watched all hearings, because the events of Jan. 6 continue to be a top political concern of hers.
“We almost lost our democracy,” Richardson said. “That was an attempted coup, and without democracy all these other issues are going to be irrelevant.”
She said the most shocking aspects of the hearings were less about Trump’s behavior, but the involvement of other members of the Republican Party.
Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and other state Republicans were mentioned in the hearings for their role in discrediting the 2020 election results. In one of the hearings, it was revealed Gohmert asked Trump for a pardon after Jan. 6.
Many Texas GOP lawmakers have been critical of the committee’s investigation, and said they would not watch the hearings. Sen. Ted Cruz said he would rather watch paint dry than watch the hearings, which he called a “kangaroo court” intended to distract voters from other issues.
“It’s politics, but I don’t think it’s going to be very effective politics,” Cruz said in June.
Richardson said if politicians truly thought the hearings were a witch hunt, they would have no issue watching it so they could dispute any information they feel is false.
“To me it seems like they are totally willing to abandon democracy,” she said.
Methodology
The Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler Poll is a statewide random sample of 1,384 registered voters conducted August 1 and 7. The mixed-mode sample includes 412 registered voters surveyed over the phone by the University of Texas at Tyler with support from ReconMR and 400 registered voters randomly selected from Dynata’s panel of online respondents. The margin of error for a sample of 972 registered voters in Texas is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points, and the more conservative margin of sampling error that includes design effects from this poll is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points for a 95% confidence interval.
The online and phone surveys were conducted in English and Spanish. Using information from the 2020 Current Population Survey and Office of the Texas Secretary of State. The sample’s gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, metropolitan density and vote choice were matched to the population of registered voters in Texas.
Visit the Center for Opinion Research for more information about our current and previous studies.
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