Dem's 'Jan 6 Insurrection' Claims Blown Apart by Harvard Study - Obliterates Jan 6 Committee's Credibility

 By  Brett Davis  July 31, 2022, at 1:58pm

A new Harvard study throws cold water on characterizing the breaching of the Capitol by rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, as an “insurrection.”

According to the study conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, more than 40 percent of rioters were motivated by former President Donald Trump’s claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, as well as a desire to see him re-elected.

According to  The Harvard Crimson, researchers found that 20.6 percent of rioters were motivated by wanting to support Trump, while another 20.6 percent of rioters cited Trump’s election claims as the reason they stormed the U.S. Capitol more than 18 months ago in a bid to thwart certification of now-President Joe Biden’s election.

Less than percent were motivated by a “desire to start a civil war or an armed revolution,” the Crimson reported.

The study has been released as a working paper because it has not yet been peer-reviewed, according to the Crimson.  It is titled,  “‘President Trump Is Calling Us to Fight’: What the Court Documents Reveal About the Motivations behind January 6 and Networked Incitement.”

It found a smattering of other causes as well, including “pursuit of historical significance” (7.43 percent), “protect the country or ‘take back'” the country” (5.76 percent), and even “Marxism, socialism, communism” (5.76 percent).

Study authors Joan Donovan, Kaylee Fagan, and Frances E. Lee wrote that their analysis found the largest portion of defendants were “motivated, in part, to invade the U.S. Capitol Building by Donald Trump,” according to the Crimson.

Donovan  is the research director at the Shorenstein Center.  Fagan  is a Shorenstein research fellow.  Lee  is a professor of politics and acting chairwoman of the department of politics at Princeton University.

The documents show that Trump and his allies convinced an unquantifiable number of Americans that representative democracy in the United States was not only in decline but in imminent, existential danger,” the study said.

“This belief translated into a widespread fear of democratic and societal breakdown, which, in turn, motivated hundreds of Americans to travel to D.C. from far corners of the country in what they were convinced was the nation’s most desperate hour.”

In other words, it was the exact opposite of “insurrection.”

While the Harvard study is not complimentary toward Trump, of course, in that it paints a picture of a cult of personality as the main reason for the violence, it does damage the narrative put forth by Democrats and the mainstream media that an “insurrection” took place that day.

An  insurrection  has traditionally been defined as an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence.