On the 15-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Americans are as apprehensive as ever about the likelihood of another major attack on the United States.
A full 71 percent of Americans now say the terrorists’ ability to launch another major attack in the United States is greater than (40 percent) or equal to (31 percent) their ability at the time of the 9/11 attacks, according to a Pew Research Center survey released earlier this week. A fourth of Americans (25 percent) say the terrorists’ ability to launch a major attack is less than it was 15 years ago.
The results — 15 years after the fact — are similar to the results Pew found in 2002, a year after the 9/11 attacks. Then, 39 percent of Americans said the terrorists’ ability to launch another major attack on U.S. soil was greater, 34 percent said it was the same as, and 22 percent said it was less than it was at the time of the September 11.
There are stark partisan differences in Americans’ views on the ability of terrorists to attack the United States. Republicans are more likely to see the county as vulnerable to attack and Democrats are less to see such weaknesses. According to Pew’s results, 58 percent of Republicans say the ability of terrorists to attack the U.S. is greater than it was on 9/11, while 31 percent of Democrats and 34 percent of Independents voiced the same opinion.
The partisan divide is not new, as Pew highlights. During George W. Bush’s presidency, Democrats were more likely to say the terrorists’ ability to attack the U.S. was greater than it was on 9/11 and now, with Obama in the office, Republicans are more likely to echo those views.
Interestingly, Republicans’ belief in the terrorists’ abilities to attack has shot up 18 percentage points since 2013.
Pew’s survey of 1,201 adults also probed respondents on their memories of the 9/11 attacks. According to the poll, 91 percent of Americans say they remember exactly where they were when they heard the news of the attacks.
The survey was conducted from August 23 to September 2, 2016 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points for the entire sample, +/-6 percentage points for the Republican sample, +/-5.7 percentage points for the Democrat sample, and +/-5.7 percentage points for the sample of Independents.