Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is partially fulfilling one of his promises made during the speakership race by granting Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to over 41,000 hours of footage from the January 6 Capitol protests.
The news was first reported by Axios’ Mike Allen, citing sources close to McCarthy.
The House Speaker previously pledged to release the footage to the American people when questioned about the matter by reporters on January 12.
“I want to be very thoughtful about it, but yes, I’m engaged to do that,” McCarthy said, responding to a question about releasing all of the footage.
“I think the public should see what happened on that day. I watched what Nancy Pelosi did, where she politicized it,” he added. “Where for the first time in the history as a Speaker, not allowing the minority to appoint to a committee. We watched the politicization of this. I think the American public should actually see what happened instead of a report that’s written on a political basis.”
Speaker McCarthy promises to release all of the security footage from January 6 pic.twitter.com/WgBYhSYRxZ
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 12, 2023
Many have pointed out that McCarthy isn’t exactly keeping his promise, as he is not releasing the footage to the public but is giving it to one person who will likely only share pieces of it.
No. He didn’t keep his promise. He said he would release it to the PUBLIC. Tucker Carlson shouldn’t get to decide what we see and don’t see.
Basically Rupert Murdoch (owner) & Paul Ryan (Fox News board member) get to decide how much footage we see.
Absolute McCarthy deception. https://t.co/eQ7gfbiIYv
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) February 20, 2023
Meanwhile, the report from Axios noted that “Tucker Carlson Tonight” producers spent time at the Capitol last week to sift through the footage — which includes content from multiple angles during the January 6, 2021 protests. Clips will reportedly begin airing on Carlson’s show in the coming weeks.
The Fox News anchor reportedly told Axios: “There was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret.”
“If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6. By definition, this video will reveal it,” Carlson added.
“It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that,” he continued.
Some footage from the event has already been shared by the biased, Democrat-controlled House Select Committee investigating the January 6 protests — though it was heavily edited and selected to favor the Democrats’ narrative on the incident.
Democrats have long fought against the release of the footage, which critics argue would disprove their narrative that the protests were an “insurrection.”
Carlson himself has consistently questioned the “insurrection” narrative, including the left’s claims about the murder of Ashli Babbitt.
