The College Fix

A new report out of the University of Chicago shows that millions more people favor using violence to keep Donald Trump from the presidency than those who would use it to put him back in the Oval Office.

The Chicago Project on Security & Threats survey findings, some of which are available at The Guardian, indicate that eighteen million, or 6.9 percent of Americans, feel violence is justified to ensure Trump does become president again.

This represents an increase of approximately six million from last April.

Of this 18 million, “68% believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and 62% believe the prosecutions of Trump are intended to hurt his chances in 2024.”

U. Chicago’s Robert Pape, founding director of CPOST, said “The public is more radicalized than it was in April and it’s really quite significant. We’ve been tracking this quite a while, and this is a really big bump.”

Pape (pictured) said a more “radicalized public” alone is not sufficient for actual violence. He compared the situation to a “kindling” which would need something like Trump “light[ing] the fire” as he (allegedly) did on January 6, 2021.

MORE: Northwestern U. scholars unanimous: Trump indictment is a good thing

But what’s shown only as part of a bar graph in The Guardian is the percentage of Americans (11.6) who said violence would be ok to prevent Trump from again assuming the presidency. This equates to 30 million people, and was highlighted on this Sunday’s CBS’s “Face the Nation” on which Pape was a guest.

While noting the Left has never engaged in anything like the January 6 “siege,” Pape said “nonetheless, what we need to look at are the sentiments on both the right and the left that are being radicalized to millions and millions of Americans.”

The CPOST report also found many more Democrats than Republicans favored violence “to coerce members of Congress to ‘do the right thing,’” and to restore nationwide abortion rights.

30 million say “use of force” justified to prevent another Trump presidency, compared to 18 million who say same about restoring Trump presidency, per @ProfessorPape on @FaceTheNation. pic.twitter.com/KBHZO9cNsd

— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 (@BrentHBaker) August 13, 2023

Other survey findings include:

— More Americans view Donald Trump as a “bigger threat to democracy” than Joe Biden (52-33 percent).

— Almost 90 percent of Trump supporters believe the federal government “is run by a ‘deep state’ of immoral people.”

— Seven percent of Americans believe violence is justified to prevent the various prosecutions of Mr. Trump.

— Twelve percent of Americans “agree or strongly agree” that the U.S. government is run by a “secret group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.”

MORE: Study blames Trump for ‘fear’ among LGBT people

IMAGES: Brent Baker, Robert Pape/Twitter

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