What polls show about Republicans, Democrats and violence

Five years ago, supporters of President Donald Trump violently stormed the US Capitol after he fed them lies about the 2020 election.

His lawyer Rudy Giuliani had told them to engage in a “ trial by combat ” and Trump had directed them to march to the Capitol. Upon returning to office, Trump pardoned virtually all of them, including more than 200 who assaulted police .

Today, he argues it’s Democrats who have the problem with political violence.

He made that case after Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September, and he’s making it again after a gunman was arrested outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night.

But what do the American people think about political violence? Here’s what polling shows.

1. There is bipartisan agreement that this is a growing problem

Fully 85% of Americans said after Kirk’s assassination that politically motivated violence was increasing in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center .

And there is also growing, bipartisan agreement that political rhetoric is playing a major role.

Since 2011, NBC News polling has repeatedly asked whether major instances of political violence were driven more by “a disturbed person” or “extreme political rhetoric.”

The percentage blaming rhetoric more than mental illness has increased from 24% in 2011 (Democratic then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shooting), to 41% in 2017 (congressional GOP baseball practice shooting), to 49% in 2022 (Paul Pelosi attack), to 54% in 2024 (Trump’s assassination attempt in Butler), to 61% last year (Kirk’s assassination).

The Kirk assassination was the first time that majorities of both Republicans and Democrats blamed rhetoric more than a disturbed person.

Democrats have generally been more likely to connect rhetoric to actual violence. A PRRI poll late last year showed 66% of Democrats and 46% of Republicans said violent language and hate symbols contribute “a lot” to violent actions.

But the percentage of Republicans who agree with that statement has risen substantially from 2019, when just 26% agreed.

2. People still tend to see the right’s rhetoric as a bigger problem

Despite Trump’s concerted efforts after Kirk’s assassination to argue violent rhetoric is mostly a Democratic problem, Americans didn’t buy it.

Perhaps owing to Trump’s years of rather violent and ugly rhetoric , they still tended to blame Republicans more.

An October Gallup poll showed 69% of Americans said Republicans and their supporters had “gone too far in using inflammatory language to criticize their political opponents.” That compared to 60% who said the same of Democrats.

That’s similar to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted during Trump’s first term in 2019. It found 45% of voters blamed Trump for the lack of civility in politics, compared to 34% who blamed Democrats.

And a Washington Post-ABC News poll in October showed 34% blamed Republicans more for the risk of politically motivated violence, compared to 28% who blamed Democrats more.

That six-point gap was smaller than after Trump’s assassination attempt in 2024, but similar to 2022.

3. People increasingly see left-wing violence on par with right-wing

Data for decades has shown that right-wing political violence has been a bigger problem than left-wing violence — by a lot.

But there is some evidence that could be shifting, with left-wing attacks rising at least somewhat of late, according to data from the Cato Institute and others. And high-profile recent episodes like the Trump assassination attempts and the Kirk assassination appear to have convinced Americans that this is more of a “both sides” problem.

• 44% of Americans said right-wing groups were responsible for most political violence, compared to 41% who said left-wing groups, per the PRRI poll.

• 52% of Americans said right-wing extremism was a “major problem,” compared to 53% who said the same of left-wing extremism, according to the Pew poll.

• 26% said right-wing violence was a bigger problem, compared to 28% who said it was left-wing violence, per a November Marquette Law School poll .

Similarly, 32% of Americans said Democrats had a better approach to violence and extremism, versus 31% who said that about Republicans, according to a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll .

Those are all very close, margin-of-error findings. And they suggest that recent events have made the perception of violence and its political motivations more of a wash — even if more people tend to fault Republicans’ rhetoric.

4. The left has closed the gap on views of justified violence

Last year, I noted how polling for years had shown Republicans were more likely to believe in the concept of justified violence — that is, that there are certain circumstances that warrant political violence.

And it wasn’t even close .

But many on the left — especially younger liberals — seemed to justify and even celebrate the murders of Kirk and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. After the latter episode in 2024, a CBS News-YouGov poll showed 31% of Democrats said it was acceptable to react positively to the news, versus 19% of Republicans.

Now, Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of justified violence are much closer.

The most recent PRRI data showed 17% of Democrats agreed that things were so off-track that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” compared to 19% of Republicans. During the Biden administration, there were usually three times as many Republicans who agreed with that statement.

The Marquette poll showed 13% of Democrats said violence can be justified to achieve political goals, versus 10% of Republicans.

Pew data shows similar proportions of Democrats and Republicans said their party should completely reject groups who advocate violence — about 7 in 10 in both cases.

And the Reuters data from October showed similar numbers of both parties disagreed with the idea of threatening or intimidating others or using violence to achieve political goals.

All that to say, partisan views on justified hypothetical violence have clearly become much closer.

So while Americans still haven’t seemed to buy into Trump’s argument that this is overwhelmingly a Democratic problem, certain dynamics have shifted since he returned to the Oval Office.

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