Frightening:
Twenty-five percent of Americans say it is “probably” or “definitely” true that the FBI instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a false concept promoted by right-wing media and repeatedly denied by federal law enforcement, according to a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.
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The Post-UMD poll finds a smaller 11 percent of the public overall thinks there is “solid evidence” that FBI operatives organized and encouraged the attack, while 13 percent say this is their “suspicion only.”
Among Republicans, 34 percent say the FBI organized and encouraged the insurrection, compared with 30 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats.
The results confirm that misinformation about Jan. 6 is widespread as the United States heads into a presidential election year, during a campaign in which the former president and leading 2024 Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed support for those who participated in the insurrection. Despite a detailed congressional investigation and more than 725 completed federal prosecutions of Jan. 6 participants that did not yield evidence of FBI involvement, a substantial minority of Americans still embrace conspiracy theories not unlike the ones that drove many rioters to storm the Capitol three years ago.
“The people that went there to express their views, to support Trump, were peaceful,” said Richard Baum, 61, an independent voter from Odessa, Tex. “The government implants were the violent ones: the FBI, the police people that were put in there, the antifa and BLM hired by George Soros; everybody knows that.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...dia/?itid=mc_magnet-jan6_inline_collection_20
The Post-UMD poll finds 39 percent of Americans who say Fox News is their primary news source believe the FBI organized and encouraged the Jan. 6 attack, compared with 16 percent of CNN or MSNBC viewers and 13 percent who get most of their news from ABC, CBS or NBC. The poll finds 44 percent of those who voted for Trump say the FBI instigated the attack.
About 700 Jan. 6 defendants have pleaded guilty to federal crimes ranging from trespassing to violent assaults on police, and another 130 have been convicted at trial, after Trump directed angry supporters to march to the Capitol to oppose Congress’s confirmation of the 2020 election results. In numerous hearings and trials, attorneys for defendants — including “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley and ex-Proud Boy leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio — have blamed Trump for the attack or their behavior in subsequent rioting that day, citing Trump’s encouragement to “fight like hell” and his false claims of massive voter fraud.
‘Insane,’ ‘ludicrous,’ ‘absurd’: FBI’s Wray shows teeth to GOP critics
The FBI has categorically rejected allegations of any involvement in sparking the Capitol riot. “This notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said during a House hearing in July, “and is a disservice to our brave, hard-working, dedicated men and women.”
But the vast legal and evidentiary record to date has not appeared to sway people such as Travis Garcia, 34, a Republican from Rock Falls, Ill., who said, “I’ve read and seen a lot about these people being affiliated with the FBI.” He cited a man who fits the description of Ray Epps, saying he was “trying to egg on violence before anything even happened.” Epps, who became a focus of a conspiracy theory that the federal government ignited the Capitol riot, has pleaded guilty to trespassing and filed suit against Fox News for falsely depicting him as an FBI operative.
'https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/04/fbi-conspiracy-jan-6-attack-misinformation/
Twenty-five percent of Americans say it is “probably” or “definitely” true that the FBI instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a false concept promoted by right-wing media and repeatedly denied by federal law enforcement, according to a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.
Sign up for Fact Checker, our weekly review of what's true, false or in-between in politics.
The Post-UMD poll finds a smaller 11 percent of the public overall thinks there is “solid evidence” that FBI operatives organized and encouraged the attack, while 13 percent say this is their “suspicion only.”
Among Republicans, 34 percent say the FBI organized and encouraged the insurrection, compared with 30 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats.
The results confirm that misinformation about Jan. 6 is widespread as the United States heads into a presidential election year, during a campaign in which the former president and leading 2024 Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed support for those who participated in the insurrection. Despite a detailed congressional investigation and more than 725 completed federal prosecutions of Jan. 6 participants that did not yield evidence of FBI involvement, a substantial minority of Americans still embrace conspiracy theories not unlike the ones that drove many rioters to storm the Capitol three years ago.
“The people that went there to express their views, to support Trump, were peaceful,” said Richard Baum, 61, an independent voter from Odessa, Tex. “The government implants were the violent ones: the FBI, the police people that were put in there, the antifa and BLM hired by George Soros; everybody knows that.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...dia/?itid=mc_magnet-jan6_inline_collection_20
The Post-UMD poll finds 39 percent of Americans who say Fox News is their primary news source believe the FBI organized and encouraged the Jan. 6 attack, compared with 16 percent of CNN or MSNBC viewers and 13 percent who get most of their news from ABC, CBS or NBC. The poll finds 44 percent of those who voted for Trump say the FBI instigated the attack.
About 700 Jan. 6 defendants have pleaded guilty to federal crimes ranging from trespassing to violent assaults on police, and another 130 have been convicted at trial, after Trump directed angry supporters to march to the Capitol to oppose Congress’s confirmation of the 2020 election results. In numerous hearings and trials, attorneys for defendants — including “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley and ex-Proud Boy leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio — have blamed Trump for the attack or their behavior in subsequent rioting that day, citing Trump’s encouragement to “fight like hell” and his false claims of massive voter fraud.
‘Insane,’ ‘ludicrous,’ ‘absurd’: FBI’s Wray shows teeth to GOP critics
The FBI has categorically rejected allegations of any involvement in sparking the Capitol riot. “This notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said during a House hearing in July, “and is a disservice to our brave, hard-working, dedicated men and women.”
But the vast legal and evidentiary record to date has not appeared to sway people such as Travis Garcia, 34, a Republican from Rock Falls, Ill., who said, “I’ve read and seen a lot about these people being affiliated with the FBI.” He cited a man who fits the description of Ray Epps, saying he was “trying to egg on violence before anything even happened.” Epps, who became a focus of a conspiracy theory that the federal government ignited the Capitol riot, has pleaded guilty to trespassing and filed suit against Fox News for falsely depicting him as an FBI operative.
'https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/04/fbi-conspiracy-jan-6-attack-misinformation/
