According to a Harvard University study of the reasons for participating in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, only 8% of those who took part wanted to start a civil war or insurrection. Contrary to the claims made by the Jan. 6 Committee.
Last week, the Harvard Crimson said:
“The majority of the rioters, according to the Shorenstein Center’s most extensive study to date on why Trump supporters attacked the Capitol, were driven to join in the violence because they backed Trump. Another 20.6 percent of the rioters cited Trump’s false claims that the presidential election of 2020 was stolen as their primary motivation for taking part in the Jan. 6 protest.”
According to the survey, a third of those who tried to storm the Capitol reported that they wanted to start an armed revolution or civil war. According to the statistics, almost 8% of defendants said it was their main reason.
“Fagan said she was shocked at how frequently Trump and election fears were highlighted as the main reasons for joining the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol in an interview.”
The study also suggests that a lot of the people in the riot believed — correctly or mistakenly — that they were fighting for democracy, not attempting to overthrow it, according to constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley.
The “lies about a election fraud and the enthusiasm for him being re-elected” were among the reasons given by a plurality of the 417 federally indicted suspects, according to the study. It concluded that “the papers reveal that Trump and his friends convinced a certain number of people that democracy in the U.S. was not only on the decline but on its way out.”
The researchers found that the belief in QAnon was one of the “lesser reasons” behind the rally. The study wasn’t particularly favorable to Trump, and one researcher noted his surprise at the findings since conspiracies were so prominent throughout much of the riot’s visual content.
“Once again, this does not excuse or exculpates the people who rioted on Jan. 6th, nor those who egged them on. However, the word “insurrection” being used by pundits, politicians, and the press is an inaccurate description of the reasons for the majority of people who came to Capitol Hill that day. It was clear that it was only a protest that evolved into a riot.”
The members of the Jan. 6 Committee, including chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), have previously disputed the certification of the presidential elections that Republicans have won, by claiming voting machines were tampered with, or foreign influence was involved.
