Well, well, well—if it isn’t the numbers telling the story nobody in certain corners of the media wanted to hear. CNN’s John Berman and Harry Enten, armed with cold, hard data, have effectively blown a hole in one of the central strategies Democrats clung to for years: using January 6th as the defining narrative to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. Spoiler alert—it didn’t work.
Let’s set the stage: right after January 6th, in the heat of the moment, public sentiment leaned heavily against Trump. According to Enten, a majority—56%—believed Trump’s actions (or perceived inactions) on that day should disqualify him from ever holding office again. That was the Democrats’ golden number, their north star. They built a whole political and media strategy around it, hoping that outrage would carry them across the finish line in 2024.
But here’s the kicker: time passed. Three years later, that number didn’t just slip—it cratered. By the time Americans headed to the polls in 2024, only 47% still believed Trump’s actions should bar him from office. That’s a nine-point drop. Nine points! In the world of elections, that’s not a rounding error—that’s seismic.
And it wasn’t just about whether Trump should be ineligible; it was about blame. Immediately after January 6th, 48% of voters squarely blamed Trump for the riot. Fast forward to 2024, and that number had tumbled down to just 37%. That’s an 11-point free fall in a category that Democrats banked on as their ace in the hole.
But Enten didn’t stop there. He went a step further and asked the million-dollar question: Why? Why did these numbers change so drastically? The answer is as simple as it is devastating for Trump’s opponents: people stopped caring.
When asked to name their biggest memory from Trump’s first term, only five percent—a measly five percent—pointed to January 6th. Among Republicans, that number plunged to a mere two percent.
CNN Data Shows Voters No Longer Buy January 6 ‘Insurrection’ Hype...
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten revealed Monday that American voters’ focus on the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot significantly waned during the 2024 presidential election cycle.
The shift in public… pic.twitter.com/dqsIOeVWsl
— RVM News (@redvoicenews) January 6, 2025
Think about that. Democrats spent years crafting narratives, hosting televised hearings, and pushing primetime documentaries to brand January 6th as a defining stain on Trump’s legacy. President Biden practically built his reelection campaign around the idea that Trump was a singular threat to democracy. And yet, when voters were asked what they remembered most about Trump’s presidency, almost nobody mentioned the riot.
This isn’t just a messaging failure—it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the American electorate. People vote on what affects their daily lives. Gas prices, grocery bills, crime in their neighborhoods, and whether they feel optimistic about the future. A riot in Washington, D.C., over three years ago? It simply didn’t make the cut.
Enten’s analysis also reveals another uncomfortable truth for Trump’s critics: the relentless focus on January 6th may have actually backfired. The more it was hammered into the ground, the more it began to feel less like a historical reckoning and more like a political weapon. Voters aren’t stupid—they can smell opportunism a mile away.
And let’s not forget Berman’s final observation: President Biden made January 6th the centerpiece of his reelection pitch. He framed it as a moral imperative, a line in the sand between democracy and autocracy. But it turns out voters weren’t buying it. The riot faded in importance, and the campaign narrative built around it crumbled under the weight of more immediate concerns.
Now, none of this is to suggest that January 6th wasn’t a serious event—it was. But in politics, timing and relevance are everything. And by 2024, voters had moved on.
The numbers don’t lie, and Harry Enten laid them out with brutal clarity. The outrage that Democrats hoped would carry them to victory didn’t materialize. Trump not only survived the fallout from January 6th—he thrived despite it.