That view still remains the same. Pew Research Center released data Wednesday showing that about half of Republicans (and Republican-leaning independents) think Trump did nothing wrong to overturn his 2020 loss. One-fifth of respondents said they “don’t know” whether Trump did anything wrong. This has more than two-thirds of the party claiming innocence or uncertainty. Americans as a whole (and an overwhelming majority of Democrats/Democrat supporters) believe that Mr. Trump has done something wrong or broken the law.
The fact that Trump’s actions since 2020 are not seen as subversive of democracy by many in his base is reflected in another of Pew’s questions. Respondents were presented with several characteristics that might apply to Biden or Trump and asked how confident they were that the characteristics applied to the candidate.
Just over a third of respondents said they were “very” or “extremely” confident that Biden respects America’s democratic values. A slightly smaller percentage said the same about Trump. Confidence is high among Biden supporters, with three-quarters saying they have confidence in Biden’s respect for democracy. Among Trump supporters, two-thirds had similar confidence in the candidate.
There is a level of abstraction here that is important to recognize. Asking whether the candidate you support respects democracy is like asking whether he is a good person. You’re going to want to say that. Coupled with the willingness of Republicans and Trump supporters to dismiss the idea that he did anything wrong after the 2020 election, it is clear that Biden and Trump do not show a similar tendency to set aside democratic decisions. You will find the same position.
Mr. Pugh asked another question that addressed the issue of democracy in a more roundabout way. They asked respondents how important it was for losing candidates to concede in elections. Supporters of both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump generally said this was “very” or “somewhat” important. But while 77 percent of Biden supporters said it was very important (as did 60 percent of all respondents), less than half of Trump supporters agreed.
Pew compared these responses to previous polls on the same question. In November 2016, just before the election when Trump was expected to lose, even fewer voters (31%) said concessions were important. At any given point, at least 6 in 10 Democrats say it is very important for losing candidates to concede. (Hillary Clinton, the defeated candidate in 2016, quickly conceded to Trump.)
The situation in 2024 is different from 2020 in that Trump is no longer president. That means some of the tactics he deployed at the time, such as trying to reduce the number of electors Congress is counting to the vice president, may no longer be possible. But many other efforts remain, including putting pressure on state and local officials and introducing alternative electoral pools. Such efforts will become even more difficult given the backlash of the past few years, including this week. But nothing prevents President Trump from again alleging fraud or illegality in order to damage potential losses.
Of course, the Pew poll also shows that he and Biden are tied nationally and that Biden is in a better position now than he was in the 2020 election. There may not be a need to overturn his loss in the November election, as he may be able to win.
