With the powerful case it has assembled against former President Donald Trump, the bipartisan House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection may provide the clearest — and potentially most ominous — measure yet available of how completely red and blue America have separated into divergent information bubbles that no longer share even the most rudimentary agreement on the basic facts of American life. …
For months, polls have consistently found large numbers of Republicans expressing agreement with propositions that have no basis in fact, including the beliefs that systemic fraud stole the 2020 election from Trump and the January 6 assault was carried out by leftist agitators and Black protesters, not White supremacist groups and Trump supporters. …
By assembling the information about Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 result into one overarching narrative, releasing striking new information from its months of investigation (like the reports that Trump had praised the words of rioters chanting for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence) and focusing national attention through sustained media coverage and surprisingly high ratings for its kickoff prime-time hearing last week, the committee is testing whether any disclosure, no matter how damning, can breach the dome of disinformation that Trump and his allies in conservative media have built around many voters in the GOP coalition. CONTINUED
Ronald Brownstein, CNN
The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up here: opiniontoday.substack