Over half of Americans worry something like Jan. 6 could happen again

A majority of Americans believe events akin to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — the one-year anniversary of which falls on Thursday — are likely to occur again in the next few years, according to a new Axios/Momentive poll.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents reported believing history could, in some way, repeat itself when it comes to last year's insurrection, the poll found. When broken down by party, that came out to about half of Republicans and seven in 10 Democrats, Axios writes.

What's more, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of those surveyed said that what happened on Jan. 6 has "at least temporarily changed the way Americans think about their democratic government," per Momentive.

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The survey also found that less than six in 10 Americans — 55 percent — believe President Biden to be the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, "a share that hasn't changed since ... last year," notes Axios, per their own polling.

"It's dispiriting to see that this shocking thing we all witnessed last year hasn't changed people's perceptions," said Laura Wronski, a senior manager of research science at Momentive. "The partisan division is still the story."

American adults did agree on one thing, however — 53 percent of those surveyed said political polarization and divisions "are worse than before and are likely to continue far into the future," Momentive writes. Interestingly enough, older Americans were "far more concerned" about the current state of democracy than younger respondents, "and also more likely to support the work of the Jan. 6 commission," per Axios.

Momentive surveyed 2,649 U.S. adults between Jan. 1-3, 2022. Results have a margin of error of 2 percentage points. See more results here.