Biden begins presidency with positive ratings; Trump departs with lowest-ever job mark

As Joe Biden prepares to take office just days after a deadly riot inside the U.S. Capitol, 64% of voters express a positive opinion of his conduct since he won the November election. Majorities also approve of Biden’s Cabinet selections and how he has explained his plans and policies for the future. Donald Trump leaves the White House with the lowest job approval of his presidency (29%) and increasingly negative ratings for his post-election conduct. Three-quarters of Americans say Trump bears at least some responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot, and a narrow majority (54%) say it would be better for the country for Trump to be removed from office.

• In their own words: How Americans reacted to the rioting at the U.S. Capitol
• How lawmakers’ social media activity changed in the days after the attack 
• Before Capitol riot, Republicans who relied on Trump for news were more concerned than other Republicans about election fraud

How Trump compares with other recent presidents in appointing federal judges

Donald Trump leaves the White House having appointed more than 200 judges to the federal bench, including nearly as many powerful federal appeals court judges in four years as Barack Obama appointed in eight. As his administration comes to an end, here’s a look at how Trump compares with his recent predecessors in the overall number and demographic characteristics of the judges he appointed.

The state of online harassment

Roughly four-in-ten Americans (41%) have personally experienced online harassment in at least one of the six key ways measured in a new Pew Research Center study. And while the overall prevalence of this type of abuse is the same as it was in 2017, there is evidence that online harassment has intensified since then. Growing shares of Americans report experiencing more severe forms of online abuse such as sexual harassment or stalking.

• One-in-five adults report being harassed online for their political views
• Q&A: What we’ve learned about online harassment

News use across social media platforms in 2020

A large portion of Americans continue to rely on social media sites for news, even as these companies struggle to deal with misleading information on their platforms about the election, the COVID-19 pandemic and more. About half of U.S. adults say they get news from social media often or sometimes. Among 11 social media sites asked about as a regular source of news, Facebook sits at the top, with 36% of Americans getting news there regularly.

• More than eight-in-ten Americans get news from digital devices

Legislators in UK, Canada and Australia express post-election enthusiasm for Biden administration on Twitter

Pew Research Center collected and analyzed the content of more than 200,000 tweets from legislators in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom to better understand how elected officials publicly framed the role of the United States and the two major candidates, both in the run-up to the election and after the winner was announced.

A record number of women are serving in the 117th Congress

Black voters were most likely to say November election was run very well

Interactive: Racial and ethnic gaps in the U.S. persist on key demographic indicators

Americans say U.S. can learn a lot from other countries on handling the coronavirus outbreak, other issues

Measuring religion in Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel

From our research