More than half of US Republicans still believe the 6 January Capitol riot last year was a conspiracy by left-wing protesters, a new poll has suggested.

       At least 55 per cent of Republicans believe in the debunked conspiracy theory that the left led the insurrection to make former US president Donald Trump look bad, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.

       Meanwhile, the select committee formed to investigate the attack began its high-profile hearings on Thursday.

       Mr Trump has been accused of an “attempted coup” over the Capitol riots. Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the committee, said during the hearing that Mr Trump had “lit the flame of this attack”.

       Democrat Bennie Thompson said the riots endangered American democracy.

       “We can’t live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that there was fraud in the election,” said former attorney general Bill Barr. He also said he told Mr Trump several times he had lost the election and that his claims of election fraud were wrong.

       But Republicans, as per the poll of 1,004 people conducted this month, believe that “most of the protesters were peaceful and law-abiding”.

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       At least 58 per cent of them thought the protests were peaceful even though four people died on the day of the attack and at least 140 police officers were assaulted, while one Capitol police officer died the next day.

       The survey also revealed that “overwhelming majorities of respondents from both parties thought it was unacceptable for their party’s members to use violence to achieve political goals”.

       But it also found that one in 10 in each party considered violence an “appropriate political tool”.