Democrats are focused on Jan. 6 while Americans worry about inflation: Mollie Hemingway
Senior politics reporter for Axios Josh Kraushaar, Heritage President Kevin Roberts, and Fox News contributors Richard Fowler and Mollie Hemingway discuss rising gas prices, the January 6 trial, and more top political news.
A new poll released by Monmouth University on Wednesday showed that 60% of Americans feel that former President Donald Trump should testify before the Jan. 6 House special committee.
The latest national Monmouth University Poll also finds the public is "evenly divided on whether Trump’s continued presence in American politics poses a danger to our democracy."
Of national adults polled between Oct. 13-17, six in 10 Americans — or 60% — say Trump should have to testify before the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building.
That includes 89% of Democrats and 61% of independents. Just one-third of the public — 34% — says he should not have to appear, which includes 67% of Republicans.
TRUMP ‘LOVES THE IDEA OF TESTIFYING’ BEFORE JAN. 6 COMMITTEE: SOURCE CLOSE TO THE FORMER PRESIDENT
A video of then-President Donald Trump speaking is displayed as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
"If Trump does testify, partisans of all stripes agree that his appearance should occur at a public hearing — 77% overall, including 8 in 10 Democrats and independents and nearly two-thirds of Republicans," according to the New Jersey university. "Despite the committee’s newsmaking subpoena last week, opinion of Trump’s involvement in the attack on the Capitol has not moved since the summer."
Currently, the poll showed 36% of the public says Trump is directly responsible for what happened, 27% feel Trump encouraged those involved but is not directly responsible, and 33% feel he has done nothing wrong regarding the Jan. 6 riot. Four in 10 Americans — or 40% — favor charging Trump with crimes related to his involvement in the incident, which has been stable since August, the poll says.
Another 38% are opposed to criminal charges. That number has increased slightly — from 34% as more Republicans have moved from being unsure of whether to charge Trump. Currently, 13% of Republicans are unsure, down from 31% in August. The poll 79% now oppose charges, up from 66% in August.
Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
"If anything, the House hearings seem to have driven Republicans further into the Trump camp," Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
The results come about three weeks before the November midterm elections.
NBC News’ "Morning Joe" reported on-air, citing a number of sources, that the Jan. 6 committee will issue a subpoena to Trump at some point on Wednesday. The panel voted unanimously last week to subpoena Trump, seeking his testimony under oath and documents related to the riot.
Former President Donald Trump pauses while speaking at a rally at the Minden Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nev., on Oct. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/José Luis Villegas, Pool, File)
"We all felt that our obligation is to seek his testimony. That the American people deserve to hear directly from him. That it has to be under oath," Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., said during a forum at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics on Tuesday. "That he has to be held accountable, and so we’ll be issuing the subpoena shortly both for his testimony under oath, as well as for documents, and we’ll take whatever next steps we have to take assuming that he will fulfill his legal obligation and honor the subpoena. But if that doesn’t happen, we’ll take the steps we need to take after that. But I don’t want to go too far down that path at this point."
Fox News Digital previously reported on Oct. 13 that a source close to Trump said the former president "loves the idea of testifying" before the House select committee investigating Jan. 6.
The source said that if Trump complied with the subpoena and testified, he would "talk about how corrupt the election was, how corrupt the committee was, and how Nancy Pelosi did not call up the National Guard that Trump strongly recommended for her to do three days earlier on January 3, 2021."
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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