A new Rasmussen poll has found that 65 percent of likely voters believe that undercover federal agents provoked the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building and its breach.
In late February, before Fox News host Tucker Carlson started airing security footage from the Capitol attack, 61 percent of respondents had claimed that government agents had been secretly influencing the crowd and were provoking them. The poll further showed that 46 percent had stated that it was very likely that the crowd had been provoked to storm the Capitol by federal agents. The crowd entering the Capitol was trying to block the process of certifying the 2020 election results.
In the poll analysis, Rasmussen reports that following the release of the footage in Carlson’s show there has been an increase in the number of voters who believe that undercover federal agents had attempted to “provoke the riot.”
This perspective is also supported by members of both parties, with 74 percent of Republicans, 59 percent of Democrats, and 62 percent of voters not affiliated with a major party believing that it “is at least somewhat likely that undercover government agents helped provoke the Capitol riot.”
Government officials have denied these allegations and around 1,000 protestors have been charged by the Department of Justice. There are hundreds more protestors who could end up being charged in connection with the Capitol riot. Some of the defendants, in this case, have also been sentenced to years in prison.
