It's been three years, about three years since January 6th. And what has happened, of course, those three years? Republicans have become more sympathetic towards Donald Trump, and the big lie, and those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Take a look at this updated polling comparing 2023 and 2021. [00:00:19] And what you have is, overall, do you think that the protesters who entered the Capitol capital were mostly peaceful or mostly violent? Republicans, 26% had been willing to admit in 2021 that they were mostly violent. That has dropped to 18%, losing a significant, [00:00:36] almost one-third of those who were willing to admit it before are not now. Even the Democrats dropped a tick, I guess that's probably just like standard variation over time. But overall, about 10% of US adults overall, have changed their opinion. And as we've moved a couple of years away from what almost everyone agreed on, [00:00:56] the day and the days after was an unacceptable crossing of a line that should never be crossed. I mean, even Kevin McCarthy was saying that Trump was responsible. Lindsey Graham had had enough. And then some weeks passed and some months passed, and [00:01:13] a couple years, and you add a little dollop of propaganda from Fox News. Tucker Carlson working for years to normalize the violence we saw, which, again, I will remind everyone, multiple people died. There were crowds trying to beat cops to death with flagpoles, [00:01:30] mostly peaceful at this point. And we see some changes, too, overall in responses of related questions. So, do you think that it threatened democracy or was it a defensive democracy? Well, the protesters entering the Capitol, [00:01:46] you still have 58% say that it threatened democracy. There's still 12% of the country says that that was a defensive democracy. And one out of four people are like neither of those, they're ambiguous as to whether it was good to have a violent mob storming the Capitol. [00:02:03] A lot of other questions related to that. But, Nina, I want your thoughts about this. As we've moved a couple of years from January 6th, what do you think about the evolution on that topic? >> Speaker 2: I think it's fading from people's memories somewhat. I mean, there's so much going on, I mean, [00:02:19] when we think about what's happening in the Middle east, we still got Ukraine, you got horror raging in the Sudan, Congo, Haiti, other places. I think other things are above what happened on January the 6th. And so people's memories are fading. [00:02:36] And then the Republicans, especially Donald J Trump, he promotes a different narrative. And the way he pushes that narrative and his disciples push that narrative is certainly more compelling than the democratic side. [00:02:51] >> Speaker 1: Yeah, look, and I think that that's largely fair, I mean, over the course of years, there's been a lot of difficulties. If some people wanna focus on things that maybe hit closer to home, hit their pocketbook, I understand that. But when you're asked specifically about it, viewing it as less threatening, yes, [00:03:11] it's been some time, I understand that things have been normalized or whatever. But as we cruise towards 2024, we're also cruising towards an opportunity for a redo of January 6th. Trump could just win, that is definitely true, I'm super worried about that. [00:03:29] But if Trump doesn't win, does everyone think that the lesson that he's learned over the past three years is, I should probably just cool majesty, I should just accept it, I should be the bigger man. Does anybody think that what he's not going to try? [00:03:46] He's three years closer to death now. This is basically the rest of his life, is what happens in this election. And so we could be facing another January 6th. And I feel like the country is less prepared for violence in the streets than they were three years ago when we experienced it. [00:04:03] I guess that's my fear. What do you think? >> Speaker 2: People are exhausted, too. I'm glad you brought up things that are closer to home. I mean, the economy, despite what those numbers say, what's happening in the streets is different than what's happening in the bubble. And what those numbers really reflect is not what is the reality of most people in [00:04:22] this country who are suffering under the weight of high health care costs, suffering under the weight of student loan costs. If you were somebody that went to college suffering under the weight, I mean, the reason why we had solidarity summer is not because workers are getting what they deserve. [00:04:37] We had solidarity summer, which is now solidarity winter, is because workers, what is happening within the house of labor is a reflection of how workers in this country are feeling the pain that people are feeling in their everyday lives. So, John, all of that is swirling in this particular moment, [00:04:57] and grievances swirling in this particular moment on top of every other thing that comes with just being a human being and trying to make it through this thing that we call life. >> Speaker 1: Well, I understand that, it's gonna be interesting to see, [00:05:15] as we get, 2024 is big for a lot of reasons. Not only do we have the Republican primary is actually going to begin in a couple of weeks, but within two months, we're gonna have the Trump trials begin, all 80 of them or whatever. And then obviously the general election, it's gonna be interesting to see as [00:05:35] people are sort of reminded of 2020 seems a little bit abstract, I think. It's gonna become more real with all the campaigning and the ads and all that. And so it's gonna be interesting to see what people think as we get into that process. [MUSIC]