A new poll found that few Americans are paying close attention to the Jan. 6 committee hearings airing live Thursday.
A Scott Rasmussen National Survey found that 16% of respondents are following the hearings “very closely,” while 35% are paying attention “somewhat closely,” according to a poll obtained by the Daily Caller. Another 23% are not following the hearings closely and 17% “not at all closely.”
The majority of respondents, 32%, incorrectly believe that the House Select Committee will not have the hearings broadcast in prime time, the poll found. More than 1-in-5 (21%) believe the hearings have already happened, while 29% correctly answered the hearings were occurring that week.
Nearly half of respondents, 42%, said supporters of former President Donald Trump want to “end democracy and install Trump as the nation’s permanent leader,” while 37% said that is not the case. The remaining 21% said they are not sure.
The poll surveyed 1,165 registered voters online by Scott Rasmussen between June 7-8 with a 2.9% margin of error.
ICYMI: I would recommend everyone read this piece I wrote from 2021 before the Jan. 6 committee hearings begin tonight. https://t.co/3MYEfPeM93
— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) June 9, 2022
The committee is holding televised hearings on the events and testimonies of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. The hearings are produced by former ABC News president James Goldston, who previously quashed his network’s reporting on a victim of alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and is reportedly serving as an adviser to the committee.
In a Tuesday piece from The New York Times, a handful of Democrats admitted the hearings may benefit their party politically in the upcoming midterm elections. (RELATED: Retweeting Stelter, Kinzinger Says Fox Journos Should Quit If Network Doesn’t Give Him Attention)
“When these hearings are over, voters will know how irresponsibly complicit Republicans were in attempting to toss out their vote and just how far Republicans will go to gain power for themselves,” New York Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney told The New York Times.
Democratic Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson invoked the Ku Klux Klan, slavery and lynching in his opening statements during the hearing.
“I am from a part of the country where people justified the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching,” Thompson said. “I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists on January 6th, 2021.”