Survey: 61% Say Feds Likely Helped Incite 1/6 Riot

Voters overwhelmingly support releasing all videos of the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and a majority  (61%) 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.)

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. . . . 

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. . . . 

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. . . . 

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

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