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Date: 2025-06-15 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027253
US POLITICS
JAN 6TH CAPITAL HILL RIOT

Amanpour and Company: A New Study Shows Us the Single Biggest Motivation for the Jan. 6 Rioters | Amanpour and Company


Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dskVval50AE&t=48s
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
This Amanpour viewpoint originated just a few months after the January 6th riots on Capital Hill.

I do not disagree with the conclusions of the Amanpour piece, but think it tries to explain January 6th in a way that is not realistic, or rather, only part of the story.

I am an older person ... born in 1940, and I learned a lot in the decades before 1980 and especially in the 1970s.

In 1973 I wrote that the events of 1973 were 'the biggest economic event in all of history' and I am still of the opinion that this was a pretty fair conclusion.

Before the 'oil shock' of 1973 I was payng 27 cents a gallon for gas in New Jersey. My commute to work in a 'gas guzzler' car cost me very little and energy costs throughout the US economy were very low ... essentially the lowest in the world.

But all that changes with the Arab oil embargo and OPEC flexing its muscles for the first time.

For me, most of the academic analysis of the US economy and American society is dangerously flawed because it seems to ignore most everything that happened prior to 1980 ... which is 'nuts'!

Since 1980 and Reagan, a lot of the economic conversation has been focused on profits for owners, with 'trickle down' delivering for workers ... but this never worked because jobs migrated from America's industrial heartland to the non-union American South and places overseas like China, Bangladesh and other low wage countries. So-called 'Reaganomics' has done massive damage to the United States during the past 40 years and hopefully this era of economic nonsense is going to be supplanted by something better!
Peter Burgess
A New Study Shows Us the Single Biggest Motivation for the Jan. 6 Rioters | Amanpour and Company

Amanpour and Company

May 6, 2021 (Archived August 2024)

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A new study on the January 6 Capitol insurrection finds that of the nearly 400 rioters arrested or charged, 93% are white and 86% are male. Michel Martin speaks to the study’s principal investigator, Professor Robert Pape, to discuss these findings and some surprising revelations about the attackers and their motives.

Originally aired on May 6, 2021.

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Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

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Transcript
  • 0:00
  • we dig now again into a study that's
  • happened about the january 6 capital
  • insurrection of the nearly 400 american
  • rioters who arrested or
  • charged 93 percent of white and 86
  • are male that's according to the chicago
  • project on security and threats
  • here's michelle martin speaking to the
  • study's principal investigator
  • professor robert pape at the university
  • of chicago with some surprising
  • revelations
  • about the attackers and their motives
  • professor robert pape thank you so much
  • for joining us
  • thank you for having me now you've said
  • from the beginning it's important to
  • understand
  • who stormed the capital on january 6th
  • and by that you don't just mean for the
  • purpose of bringing criminal charges
  • you've analyzed information about
  • more than 400 people who've been
  • arrested so
  • far um and i'm i'm being sort of vague
  • about the number because the number
  • changes you know every day um you know
  • some of the people have been in the news
  • like the guy with the fur

  • 1:00
  • hat you know the guy putting his feet on
  • the speaker's
  • desk but you saw that there are patterns
  • the first thing
  • some things that anybody who was
  • actually watching the thing unfold could
  • see
  • overwhelmingly white overwhelmingly male
  • we could also see that they're older
  • what was the kind of
  • overall profile of the person who got
  • involved
  • what's so striking in this case is that
  • two-thirds of the over
  • now 420 who have been arrested
  • are over the age of 34. we have the
  • concentration
  • uh in the early 40s that is people who
  • are in their 40s and 50s they have
  • families they have jobs they are mature
  • adults this is a very different
  • picture than what we've seen before
  • further when we
  • drill into not just what we can see on
  • tv
  • but with this large research team at the
  • university of chicago project on
  • security and threats
  • we're able to track the occupations

  • 2:03
  • and what we find are 45
  • are ceos business owners doctors
  • lawyers accountants mid-level managers
  • uh we have a state department official
  • this is a very
  • different pattern than we're used to
  • seeing before only seven
  • percent are unemployed that is the
  • national
  • average at that point um these are not
  • people that are two three times more
  • unemployed
  • these are not people that are at the
  • desperate end of the job
  • wrong ladder and what that means is that
  • a lot of our
  • usual solutions just simply won't apply
  • so we usually think with right-wing
  • extremists well let's get them a job
  • well
  • somebody's a ceo or business owner
  • that's going to be a problem
  • um if uh what about trying to help them
  • to
  • um adopt other uh significant others in
  • their life that's a big disengagement
  • strategy in cve well if they already

  • 3:00
  • have children
  • already are married this is their and
  • they already are in a good workplace
  • this is a this this pro this is not
  • going to work either so
  • what about the militia attachment piece
  • that was the other thing i think a lot
  • of people would have thought that they
  • were part of these
  • groups that they may have heard of maybe
  • not don't know a whole lot about
  • but you know the proud boys the people
  • who are
  • you know accused of you know uh
  • desecrating these two
  • historically black churches in dc
  • earlier in the year or the oath keepers
  • or the three percenters
  • when you you found that that's not the
  • case it was actually a might tiny
  • minority
  • it is it's it's um um almost
  • 90 of the over 420
  • arrested for breaking into the capital
  • now that we have
  • half of those who broke it in you see
  • only 800 broke in
  • um over uh nearly 90 percent
  • are not affiliated with milits militias
  • or pre-existing gangs like the proud
  • boys the oath keepers of the three

  • 4:00
  • percenters
  • this is not the usual suspects
  • these are not uh the usual ideas of the
  • standard lone wolf the standard militia
  • group who's doing the standard far-right
  • violence
  • this is not the case and this is
  • important because if we keep
  • thinking it's the militia groups when
  • it's not
  • and we keep thinking it's a lone wolf
  • but when it's not then of course we're
  • going to be surprised
  • again so what did you find
  • in fact there's when you've you've been
  • writing about this for the last couple
  • of months but it just
  • doesn't fail to shock you found that
  • there are
  • there's a primary driver that stands out
  • across three separate studies all with
  • different methodologies
  • and what is that it's one sort of
  • overriding driver
  • one overriding driver across all the
  • three studies that we've now
  • conducted is the fear of the great

  • 5:00
  • replacement
  • this is the idea the great replacement
  • is the idea that the rights
  • of hispanics and blacks that is the
  • rights of minorities are
  • outpacing the rights of whites
  • and this is a consistent factor
  • in several ways in our studies number
  • one
  • we looked at the origins of where
  • the individuals who broke into the
  • capital where they lived
  • and what we discovered is that over
  • half live in counties in the united
  • states
  • that biden one these are not
  • coming from the reddest parts of america
  • these are coming half of them from the
  • bluest parts of america now to be clear
  • these are
  • pro-trump supporters so i want to be
  • absolutely clear about that
  • but they're coming from chicago they're
  • coming from houston they're coming from

  • 6:00
  • san francisco they're coming from los
  • angeles and beverly hills within los
  • angeles
  • they're coming from new york city now
  • this is uh then we started to look
  • more deeply and we discovered that what
  • do
  • the counties there are about 250 that
  • have produced these
  • 420 plus insurrectionists what do they
  • have uh
  • most in common what's their biggest risk
  • factor the biggest risk factor
  • is not whether they're rural the more
  • rural the less likely a county was
  • to send an insurrectionist it's not
  • percent vote for trump
  • the higher the vote for trump the less
  • likely the county was
  • to send an insurrectionist the number
  • one risk factor
  • was percent decline of the non-hispanic
  • white
  • population the more the decline
  • of the his non-hispanic white population
  • the more likely the county was to send
  • an insurrectionist
  • and this would happen by chance less

  • 7:01
  • than
  • one in a thousand times so this is
  • very important uh to understand second
  • we
  • followed this up because once we knew
  • that we wanted to say well gee
  • what would this what's the general risk
  • factor here in the population at large
  • so we conducted a nationally
  • representative sample with the national
  • opinion research council this is the
  • gold
  • standard of opinion surveys
  • not the kind of cheap thing that people
  • sometimes do on the side
  • um and we asked people a thousand
  • american adults we asked them do you
  • believe the election was stolen
  • and do you would you willingly
  • participate
  • in a violent protest and what we
  • discovered is
  • four percent of all american adults
  • which equates to
  • 10 million people both believe in the
  • steel
  • and would participate in a violent
  • protest

  • 8:01
  • we further found that the key risk
  • factor was
  • belief in the great replacement that is
  • the belief
  • the fear that the rights of minorities
  • were outpacing
  • the rights of whites well is it is it is
  • it the right is it the rights
  • or is it the people is it is it a rights
  • question or is it just
  • there's too many people here who don't
  • look like me and i don't like it
  • in our survey we specifically focused on
  • the word
  • rights so we specifically focused on the
  • rights of hispanics and blacks
  • uh rising greater than the rights of
  • whites
  • it's a it's a clear core belief in the
  • great replacement
  • idea um and so that's why we're uh
  • able to tie the studies together
  • so that because it's not just the
  • general findings that overlap
  • they overlap very tightly what made you

  • 9:01
  • think about demographic
  • change the demographic change in the
  • county as something
  • to to look at what made you think about
  • that so i've been studying political
  • violence around the world
  • for 30 years i started doing this
  • when i started studying political
  • violence in the balkans in bosnia
  • remember the bosnian civil war
  • well this was a conflict among muslims
  • croatians and serbs i also study iraq
  • i also study afghanistan where these are
  • sunnis versus shia or
  • pashtuns versus tajik so it was natural
  • for me to include as one of the risk
  • factors
  • something about demographics and in our
  • country the natural equivalent
  • is uh the question i just uh told you
  • about the rights of minorities versus
  • whites
  • and that idea uh just comes uh
  • basically is rooted in my 30 years of

  • 10:01
  • experience
  • what you're saying here has become one
  • of the key talking points
  • of the right-wing media is that white
  • people are being replaced
  • but what what does one do about that
  • because the fact is they do have the
  • right to say whatever they want
  • however inflammatory and racist it may
  • be
  • this also comes at a time when there is
  • no
  • political will among people of color
  • to how can i say this to
  • uh attenuate their desire for
  • what they see as equal rights in order
  • to not scare these people
  • you know you've got these sort of two
  • competing movements here
  • so so now that we know more clearly
  • and it's become more transparent not
  • just to people
  • inside the movement but to now all of us
  • as a result of this we can focus on
  • understanding the fear you see it's not

  • 11:00
  • just an
  • objective reality that's occurring here
  • there is fear that is occurring and some
  • of that for sure
  • is being manipulated by political
  • leaders
  • people in the media i'm no doubt about
  • that what you're saying
  • but understanding that is a fear allows
  • us then
  • to understand and break that apart not
  • to see it as a glob
  • or a blob fear but we can then
  • um pull it apart after 9 11 many people
  • thought you could never
  • end the threat of suicide terrorism um
  • that i was doing a lot of work on the
  • demographics of suicide terrorists
  • that led to a lot of policies and what's
  • the threat of suicide terrorism today
  • zilch or near zelch and i know because i
  • study this in my center as well
  • so uh this has changed this the idea
  • that we can understand
  • more clearly the drivers helps us to
  • understand
  • the vulnerable populations who are
  • really vulnerable to these uh to these

  • 12:01
  • fears
  • and then within that to understand which
  • parts of that are
  • the convincible part and which parts are
  • not
  • and this is how we make progress is it
  • possible that these
  • views are more widespread
  • than it would appear based on the number
  • of people who actually participated in
  • the specific
  • action as evidenced by the fact that
  • you know the former president's
  • continues to loom
  • so large over say the republican party
  • apparatus
  • in so many places and that that that
  • adhering to this this false notion that
  • the election was stolen
  • has really become kind of a core belief
  • of the republican party apparatus around
  • the country
  • so is it possible that this belief is
  • more widespread
  • than simply contained in the people who
  • took this particular action on a
  • particular day
  • uh yes so so and that's one of the
  • advantages
  • of the nationally representative uh

  • 13:02
  • study is because i can tell you
  • numbers so we now know that there are
  • about four percent
  • of american adults who fit cleanly into
  • this
  • insurrectionist movement as of now but
  • there are millions of
  • others who are just right next to this
  • group who believe in the fear of the
  • great replacement
  • they believe the election was stolen but
  • they say
  • they're not willing to participate in a
  • violent protest
  • and i would simply add as the analyst
  • now
  • you see when i study political violence
  • around the world
  • what we see are what we call uh and i
  • hope this terminology is okay
  • we have passive supporters of a violent
  • movement
  • and we have active supporters of a
  • violent movement
  • the four percent are the really
  • potentially
  • active supporters but there are then
  • others that are more passive
  • and the thing we have to be concerned

  • 14:01
  • about as we go forward
  • is that some of those who are now have
  • the same beliefs
  • but are not acting on them in such in
  • the same way
  • could become more active this is what's
  • making jay johnson the former secretary
  • of dhs
  • so concerned this is what's making
  • people who deal with disengagement from
  • right-wing groups for years this is what
  • they do for their life
  • they are really concerned when they see
  • the details
  • of what we found because it really
  • is as jay johnson said it's it's
  • frightening
  • so tell me you you promised you had some
  • hopeful
  • direction for us i think this is time to
  • hear it
  • you say you think that these the ideas
  • can be intervened upon or that this
  • behavior can be intervened upon
  • tell so so let's talk about that now how
  • so think about this like covet
  • so um when we first knew there was covet
  • people kept saying well tell me what to
  • do tell me what to do tell me what to do
  • well okay political leaders told you
  • what to do but they didn't have any

  • 15:00
  • science much science behind that
  • and notice how now that we have science
  • we can tell people
  • here's the science that will help us
  • going forward
  • well that's what we're doing now with
  • these stress testing we're doing
  • new uh uh research stress testing the
  • second thing that's very important
  • um is that we're going to assess we need
  • to assess
  • the potential of the insider threat in
  • the us military
  • so even though we found only a little
  • over 10
  • of the insurrectionists were members of
  • militia groups
  • a third of those were had former
  • military service this is a big deal
  • because even though it's a relatively
  • small portion of that layer cake of the
  • storm
  • it's a particularly deadly portion it's
  • a particular portion that is
  • trained to the highest standards of the
  • use of deadly violence
  • in the world that's our us military so
  • this is something that we need to take

  • 16:00
  • very seriously
  • and it's kind of what we can now do is
  • identify
  • a particularly vulnerable population
  • that we need to
  • understand the scope and drivers much
  • much more
  • it's with compared to cove but it's like
  • understanding preconditions
  • driving susceptibility to the disease
  • so as we go forward um we also need to
  • do
  • more consistent um uh and deeper studies
  • all the way in the run up to the 2022
  • election season we shouldn't look at
  • these as
  • just one-off studies and now we're done
  • because the 2022 election season is
  • going to be on us
  • very very quickly and we already
  • see politically it's going to be
  • contentious
  • well the work i'm focusing on is how
  • much
  • violence should we expect we know it'll
  • be politically
  • contentious i'm not going to be in the
  • politics of the issue
  • i want to we need to focus on the
  • violence part of the issue

  • 17:00
  • and we need to be doing this now
  • routinely
  • not just wait until after an event
  • happens and then people say well why did
  • that happen
  • we need to act in advance and this is
  • one of the
  • great things that we can do because we
  • have the tools
  • we have that we know how to make
  • advances in our knowledge
  • and we just need to use science
  • professor robert pig thank you so much
  • for talking with us today and i do hope
  • we'll talk again
  • oh thank you so much for having me
  • terrific discussion
  • [Music]
  • [Music]
  • you


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