They also mentioned their disapproval of riots and that they were worried about 'outside agitators', so it reads very much as if they went looking for the data to support their theory. The notion of wicked 'outside agitators' has often been thrown out by politicians who don't want to engage with an issue; it's an old trope that was used to delegitimize the civil rights movement in the 1960s by blaming it on communists or the influence of Martin Luther King. He commented on the trope explicitly in one of his Letters from Birmingham Jail:

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

Most recently, this was heard in Georgia following the death of Rayshard Brooks, and a subsequent riot in which a Wendy's restaurant was burnt down. A cry went up about 'outside agitators' and suspicion fell on a woman pictured at the scene; it turned out she was the late Mr Brooks' girlfriend.