Almost 6 in 10 opposed Trump pardons for Jan. 6 rioters: Survey
Nearly six in 10 Americans are opposed to President Trump pardoning Jan. 6, 2021, rioters convicted of crimes, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
The new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 58 percent of Americans are not in favor of the president pardoning all of the people who were convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol just over four years ago.
Trump granted around 1,500 “full, complete and unconditional pardons” for rioters charged in relation to the attack on the Capitol building on Monday night. In total, 1,583 defendants have been charged so far. Over a third of them, 600 Jan. 6 defendants, were accused of resisting, impeding or assaulting police officers during the attack.
The president defended issuing mass pardons to the rioters charged, including violent offenders, a decision that has drawn heavy blowback from Democrats and criticism from some Republican lawmakers. Trump, while speaking to reporters, equated the pardon with last-minute ones former President Biden issued to his family members and with murderers not being charged, though he did not specify who he was referencing.
“We’ll take a look at everything,” Trump said on Tuesday. “But I can say this. Murderers today are not even charged. You have murderers that aren’t charged all over.
“These people have already served years in prison, and they’ve served them viciously,” he added. “It’s a disgusting prison. It’s horrible. It’s been inhumane.”
On other topics, Trump garnered more support in the poll. Nearly half of respondents, 46 percent, approved of the president’s handling of immigration, a topic he heavily campaigned on during the 2024 presidential election. Additionally, nearly six in 10, 58 percent, said they agree with the statement that the country should "dramatically reduce the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border,” according to the survey.
His approval rating is also currently higher, 47 percent, than throughout most of his first term in the White House, the poll found.
The survey was conducted from Jan. 20-21 among 1,077 U.S. adults. It had a margin of error was around four percentage points.