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FILE
PHOTO:
Light
catches
the
security
fence
around
the U.S.
Capitol,
erected
in the
wake of
the
January
6th
attack
but now
scheduled
to start
being
removed,
in
Washington,
U.S.
March
15,
2021.
REUTERS/Jonathan
Ernst/File
Photo
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Reuters/Ipsos
poll:
Half of
Republicans
believe
false
accounts
of
deadly
U.S.
Capitol
riot:
By James
Oliphant,
Chris
Kahn
reuters.com
WASHINGTON
- Since
the
deadly
Jan. 6
insurrection
at the
U.S.
Capitol,
former
President
Donald
Trump
and his
Republican
allies
have
pushed
false
and
misleading
accounts
to
downplay
the
event
that
left
five
dead and
scores
of
others
wounded.
His
supporters
appear
to have
listened.
Three
months
after a
mob of
Trump
supporters
stormed
the
Capitol
to try
to
overturn
his
November
election
loss,
about
half of
Republicans
believe
the
siege
was
largely
a
non-violent
protest
or was
the
handiwork
of
left-wing
activists
“trying
to make
Trump
look
bad,” a
new
Reuters/Ipsos
poll has
found.
Six
in 10
Republicans
also
believe
the
false
claim
put out
by Trump
that
November’s
presidential
election
“was
stolen”
from him
due to
widespread
voter
fraud,
and the
same
proportion
of
Republicans
think he
should
run
again in
2024,
the
March
30-31
poll
showed.
Since
the
Capitol
attack,
Trump,
many of
his
allies
within
the
Republican
Party
and
right-wing
media
personalities
have
publicly
painted
a
picture
of the
day’s
events
jarringly
at odds
with
reality.
Hundreds
of
Trump’s
supporters,
mobilized
by the
former
president’s
false
claims
of a
stolen
election,
climbed
walls of
the
Capitol
building
and
smashed
windows
to gain
entry
while
lawmakers
were
inside
voting
to
certify
President
Joe
Biden’s
election
victory.
The
rioters
- many
of them
sporting
Trump
campaign
gear and
waving
flags -
also
included
known
white
supremacist
groups
such as
the
Proud
Boys.
In a
recent
interview
with Fox
News,
Trump
said the
rioters
posed
“zero
threat.”
Other
prominent
Republicans,
such as
Senator
Ron
Johnson
of
Wisconsin,
have
publicly
doubted
whether
Trump
supporters
were
behind
the
riot.
Last
month,
12
Republicans
in the
House of
Representatives
voted
against
a
resolution
honoring
Capitol
Police
officers
who
defended
the
grounds
during
the
rampage,
with one
lawmaker
saying
that he
objected
using
the word
“insurrection”
to
describe
the
incident.
The
Reuters/Ipsos
poll
shows a
large
number
of
rank-and-file
Republicans
have
embraced
the
myth.
While
59% of
all
Americans
say
Trump
bears
some
responsibility
for the
attack,
only
three in
10
Republicans
agree.
Eight in
10
Democrats
and six
in 10
independents
reject
the
false
claims
that the
Capitol
siege
was
“mostly
peaceful”
or it
was
staged
by
left-wing
protestors.
“Republicans
have
their
own
version
of
reality,”
said
John
Geer, an
expert
on
public
opinion
at
Vanderbilt
University.
“It is a
huge
problem.
Democracy
requires
accountability
and
accountability
requires
evidence.”
The
refusal
of Trump
and
prominent
Republicans
to
repudiate
the
events
of Jan.
6
increases
the
likelihood
of a
similar
incident
happening
again,
said
Susan
Corke,
director
of the
Intelligence
Project
at the
Southern
Poverty
Law
Center,
which
tracks
hate
groups.
“That is
the
biggest
danger –
normalizing
this
behavior,”
Corke
said. “I
do think
we are
going to
see more
violence.”
In a
fresh
reminder
of the
security
threats
the U.S.
Capitol
faces
since
Jan. 6,
a
motorist
rammed a
car into
U.S.
Capitol
police
on
Friday
and
brandished
a knife,
killing
one
officer
and
injuring
another
and
forcing
the
Capitol
complex
to lock
down.
Officers
shot and
killed
the
suspect.
Allie
Carroll,
a
spokeswoman
for the
Republican
National
Committee,
said its
members
condemned
the
Capitol
attack
and
referred
to a
Jan. 13
statement
from
Chairwoman
Ronna
McDaniel.
“Violence
has no
place in
our
politics
...
Those
who
partook
in the
assault
on our
nation’s
Capitol
and
those
who
continue
to
threaten
violence
should
be
found,
held
accountable,
and
prosecuted
to the
fullest
extent
of the
law,”
McDaniel
said.
A
representative
for
Trump
did not
respond
to
requests
for
comment.
‘DANGEROUS
SPIN ON
REALITY’
The
disinformation
campaign
aimed at
downplaying
the
insurrection
and
Trump’s
role in
it
reflects
a
growing
consensus
within
the
Republican
Party
that its
fortunes
remain
tethered
to Trump
and his
devoted
base,
political
observers
say.
According
to the
new
Reuters/Ipsos
poll,
Trump
remains
the most
popular
figure
within
the
party,
with
eight in
10
Republicans
continuing
to hold
a
favorable
impression
of him.
“Congressional
Republicans
have
assessed
they
need to
max out
the
Trump
vote to
win,”
said Tim
Miller,
a former
spokesman
for
Republican
presidential
candidate
Jeb
Bush.
“That
that is
the path
back to
the
majority.”
Republicans
in
Congress
show few
signs of
breaking
with
Trump.
Right
after
the
deadly
Capitol
siege,
147
Republican
lawmakers
voted
against
certifying
Biden’s
election
win. The
Democratic-led
House of
Representatives
impeached
Trump
for
“inciting
an
insurrection”,
making
him the
only
U.S.
president
to be
impeached
twice,
but most
Senate
Republicans
acquitted
him of
the
charge
in a
trial.
Last
week,
Republican
congressman
Jim
Banks of
Indiana
said the
party
must
cater to
the
working-class
voters
that
comprise
Trump’s
political
base
ahead of
next
year’s
critical
midterm
elections
that
will
dictate
control
of
Congress.
“Members
who want
to swap
out
working-class
voters
because
they
resent
President
Trump’s
impact...
are
wrong,”
Banks
wrote in
a memo
to
Republican
House
leader
Kevin
McCarthy,
contents
of which
he
posted
on
Twitter.
Banks
was one
of the
147
lawmakers
who
voted to
block
certification
of
Biden’s
win, and
he later
voted
against
impeaching
Trump.
Banks
did not
respond
to
requests
for
comment.
Some
mainstream
Republicans
contend
that
after
Republicans
lost
both the
White
House
and
control
of both
chambers
of
Congress
on
Trump’s
watch,
the
party
must
move on
from the
former
president
in order
to
attract
suburban,
moderate
and
independent
voters.
In
the
latest
Reuters/Ipsos
poll,
only
about
three in
10
independents
said
they
have a
favorable
view of
Trump,
among
the
lowest
level
recorded
since
his
presidency.
Most
Americans
-- about
60% --
also
believe
Biden
won the
November
election
fair and
square,
and said
Trump
should
not run
again.
Representative
Adam
Kinzinger
of
Illinois,
one of
Trump’s
top
Republican
critics
in
Congress,
has
criticized
the push
to
rewrite
the
history
of the
Capitol
attack.
The
disinformation
effort
is “such
a
dangerous,
disgusting
spin on
reality,”
Kinzinger
wrote in
a
fundraising
appeal
to
supporters
last
month,
“and
what’s
even
worse is
that it
goes
unchallenged
by so
many in
the
Republican
Party.”
The
window
for the
Republican
Party to
distance
itself
from
Trump
seems to
have
passed,
Miller
said.
“There
was a
chance
after
January
6 for
Republican
leaders
to
really
put
their
foot
down and
say, ‘We
can’t be
the
insurrectionist
party,’”
he said.
“Now
that
opportunity
is
totally
gone.”
The
Reuters/Ipsos
poll was
conducted
online,
in
English,
throughout
the
United
States.
It
gathered
responses
from
1,005
adults
between
March
30-31.
The poll
has a
credibility
interval,
a
measure
of
precision,
of about
4
percentage
points.
Editing
by
Soyoung
Kim and
Alistair
Bell
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