That's not quite correct. In 2021 we saw quite a few Republicans calling out January 6th as un-American, unacceptable political violence, etc, etc. The prosecution of the J6 ringleaders had wide bipartisan support. Plenty of Republicans tried to take the mantle of leadership from Trump in the belief that Republicans wouldn't support a criminal who'd attempted a coup.

But here's the thing: You're absolutely correct to say a ton of Americans implicitly supported January 6th. There were an enormous number of Americans who believed the 2020 election was stolen, or who, at the very least, had questions about it. There were a lot of conservative Americans who supported J6 because they believed having a conservative President was more important than following the law. And then there were the anons who believed in the Q conspiracy and were cheering on January 6th because they believed Trump was finally, as prophesied, going to declare martial law, dissolve the US government, and purge America of the secret cabal of billionaire Democrat child abusers - and if I remember the polls correctly, roughly one in four Republicans believed in Q.

And almost everyone in the United States - including those Republican Party leaders who tried to take the mantle of leadership from Trump - underestimated how widespread support for J6 was on the right.

And the more Biden's FBI tried to tie Trump to January 6th, tried to get him on whatever charges they could manage, the more Trump looked like a victim of political persecution instead of a failed candidate who couldn't accept defeat. The more Biden pressured social media to censor "election denial", the more it looked like the Biden administration had something to hide.

So as time passed, the "election deniers" got more and more common, and got more and more influence in the Republican Party - and ordinary rank and file Republicans heard over and over again that Trump was a victim of persecution and ordinary conservatives were being censored for supporting him, and became more and more loyal to Trump. Supporting Trump in 2024 became a loyalty test - Republicans supported him because Biden was trying so hard to have him convicted and disqualified from running for office, and choosing another candidate felt like giving in.

And as they rose in power, the Republicans who thought January 6th was unacceptable got quieter and quieter, because it became more and more obvious Trump was going to be the candidate in 2024, and they knew better than to piss him off.

In other words - as disgustingly ironic as it is - Democratic attempts to get justice for January 6th were one of the biggest reasons Trump was reelected in 2024.