61% Believe Feds Helped Incite Capitol Riot

Voters overwhelmingly support releasing all videos of the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and a majority think it’s likely that government agents helped provoke the riot.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 80% of Likely U.S. Voters believe it is important that the public be able to view all the videos of the Capitol riot, including 58% who think it’s Very Important. Only 17% don’t think it’s important for the public to be able to see all the riot videos. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fox News host Tucker Carlson is reportedly planning to broadcast videos of the Capitol riot that were not previously released by the congressional committee that investigated the riot. Eighty-six percent (86%) of Republicans, 78% of Democrats, and 75% of voters not affiliated with either major party believe it is important that the public be able to view all the videos of the Capitol riot.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is among Republicans who have expressed concern that federal agents “deliberately encouraged illegal and violent conduct on Jan?. 6?,” when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol. Sixty-one percent (61%) of voters believe it is likely that undercover government agents helped provoke the Capitol riot, including 39% who think it’s Very Likely. Thirty percent (30%) don’t think it’s likely undercover agents helped provoke the riot, including 18% who say it is Not At All Likely.

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The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on February 26-28, 2023 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Seventy percent (70%) of Republicans, as well as 57% of both Democrats and unaffiliated voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that undercover government agents helped provoke the Capitol riot.

Forty-seven percent (47%) of all Likely Voters believe the special congressional committee that investigated the Capitol riot did a good or excellent job, while 38% rate the special committee as having done a poor job. While 66% of Democrats rate the so-called J6 committee as having done a good or excellent job with its investigation, only 26% of Republicans and 47% of unaffiliated voters share that opinion. Fifty-six percent (56%) of Republicans give the J6 committee investigation a poor rating, as do 20% of Democrats and 40% of unaffiliated voters.

More whites (34%) than black voters (11%) or other minorities (22%) give the J6 committee an excellent rating. Majorities of every racial category believe it is important that all the video from the Capitol riot be made available to the public. Likewise, majorities of every group – 61% of whites, 62% of black voters and 64% of other minorities – think it is at least somewhat likely that undercover government agents helped provoke the Capitol riot.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of self-identified conservative voters say it is Very Likely that undercover agents helped provoke the riot, compared to 18% of moderates and 26% of liberals.

There is not much “gender gap” in these findings, except that men are somewhat more likely than women voters to rate the J6 committee as having done a poor job, while women voters are slightly more likely to suspect government agents helped provoke the Capitol riot.

Voters under 40 are more likely than their elders to suspect the Capitol riot was provoked by undercover agents. Older voters are more likely to rate the J6 committees as having done a poor job with its investigation of the riot.

Breaking down the electorate by income categories, voters earning more than $200,000 a year are most likely to rate the J6 committee as having done an excellent job, while those with annual incomes between $30,000 and $50,000 are most likely to give the committee a poor rating.

Among voters who think it is Very Likely that undercover government agents helped provoke the Capitol riot, 88% believe it is Very Important that the public have access to all the videos of the riot.

President Joe Biden’s strongest supporters are most pleased by the J6 committee’s investigation. Among voters who Strongly Approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 90% rate the special congressional committee as having done a good or excellent job investigating the Capitol riot. By contrast, among those who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s performance, just four percent (4%) rate the J6 committee’s work good or excellent, while 81% give the committee a poor rating.

A majority of voters don’t think President Joe Biden has kept his campaign promise to unite Americans, and one-third endorse a GOP congresswoman’s recent call for a “national divorce” between red states and blue states.

Most voters give the federal government low ratings for its response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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