Topline
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers criticized Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s downplaying of the January 6 Capitol riots in a segment Monday featuring tapes provided exclusively to the conservative pundit via Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), as Fox is set to continue releasing footage of the attacks.
Tucker Carlson speaks during 2022 FOX Nation Patriot Awards at Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock … [+] Hotel & Casino Hollywood on November 17, 2022 in Hollywood, Florida. (Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images)
Key Facts
Multiple Republican senators lashed out at Carlson’s characterization that the footage McCarthy handed over “demolishes . . . the claim that January 6th was an insurrection,” while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) launched a scathing rebuke of the segment on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said that equating the insurrection to a protest is “just a lie” and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called Carlson’s framing “bulls—t,” CNN reported.
Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Mike Rounds (S.D.), and John Thune (S.D.) also rejected Carlson’s narrative, with Thune telling CNN: “Tthere were a lot of people in the Capitol at that time that were scared for their lives.”
Schumer opened Tuesday’s Senate session by calling the segment “one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television,” and criticized McCarthy for engaging in a “treacherous, treacherous game by catering to the hard right”—a reference to McCarthy’s deal with his right-wing detractors during January speaker election to release the tapes in exchange for their support.
Schumer also called on Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch to block the release of future segments.
Crucial Quote
“Speaker McCarthy is every bit as culpable as Mr. Carlson. Speaker McCarthy’s decision to share security footage with Fox looked like a mistake from the very beginning, but after last night it looks like a disaster,” Schumer said.
Key Background
Carlson on Monday aired footage showing convicted rioter Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman,” along with images of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who died a day after he responded to the attack—among 41,000 hours of tapes McCarthy released to Carlson last month. “The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress,” Carlson said during the segment. “Instead it shows police escorting people through the building, including the now-infamous ‘QAnon Shaman.’” Schumer, before Monday’s segment aired, blasted McCarthy’s release of the tapes as a decision that “poses grave security risks to members of Congress and everyone who works on Capitol Hill,” he wrote in a letter to Senate Democrats last week. Sicknick’s death was one of several tied to the January 6 Capitol riot, while approximately 114 police officers are estimated to have been injured, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Tangent
While Carlson defended the rioters in Monday’s segment by saying they were “right” to believe “that the election they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted,” he has privately disputed claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, according to allegations made by Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation case against Fox. Court papers filed by the company last month claim that Carlson called conspiracy theories involving Dominion machines “insane” and “absurd,” despite promoting them on Fox News.
What To Watch For
McCarthy said last month the tapes would eventually be made public, though it’s unclear when. McCarthy made the pledge amid demands from other news organizations that they also should have access to the security footage.
Further Reading
McCarthy: January 6 Tapes Released To Tucker Carlson Will Be Made Public (Forbes)
Speaker McCarthy Gives Tucker Carlson 41,000 Hours Of Jan. 6 Footage (Forbes)
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Sara Dorn