McCarthy gives Carlson riot footage
House speaker allows Fox News host to have access to massive Jan. 6 trove
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has exclusively provided a massive trove of U.S. Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has downplayed the deadly violence that occurred that day and claimed it was a “false flag” operation.
Mr. McCarthy has declined to comment on the unprecedented move, but Mr. Carlson said Monday night on his program that his producers have been granted “unfettered” access to security video when hundreds of pro- Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college win. Five people died as a result of the attack, and 140 members of law enforcement were injured as the mob used flagpoles, bear spray, baseball bats and other weapons to bludgeon police.
“So there’s about 44,000 hours, and we have — you may have read today — been granted access to that. ... We believe we have secured the right to see whatever we want to see. We’ve been there about a week. Our producers, some of our smartest producers, have been looking at this stuff and trying to figure out what it means and how it contradicts or not the story we’ve been told for more than two years. We think already in some ways that it does contradict that story.”
Mr. Carlson said his producers would spend the rest of the week assessing the video and air what they found next week.
The decision by Mr. McCarthy, who has not spoken publicly or responded to questions about the release, was first reported by Axios.
Mr. Carlson, the network’s most-watched prime-time host, has repeatedly cast doubt on official accounts of what happened on Jan. 6 unearthed last year by the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot. Instead, he has repeated baseless theories that the federal government instigated the attack and blasted the committee, at one point giving airtime to Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon hours after he had been convicted of contempt. Mr. Carlson produced a three-part documentary, “Patriot Purge,” that expounded the false conjecture that FBI operatives were behind the assault and that the Jan. 6 rioters “don’t look like terrorists — they look like tourists.”
The decision by Mr. McCarthy to provide the video to Mr. Carlson raised serious questions about whether the release of the footage would force U.S. Capitol Police to change the location of security cameras and why the speaker would give the material to a Fox News host who has peddled conspiracy theories about the attack and not share it with other news organizations.
Mr. McCarthy, who made numerous concessions to the far-right flank in his GOP conference to win enough votes to become speaker, has said that Republicans would investigate the work of the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee. Mr. McCarthy also vowed that Republicans would launch their own inquiry into “why the Capitol complex was not secure” on the day.
Former President Trump often has tried to blame then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the breach of the Capitol, falsely suggesting that the absence of enough security to turn back the pro-Trump mob was her responsibility, not that of the commander in chief. He also has falsely claimed Ms. Pelosi rejected his order for 10,000 National Guard troops —- something that never happened.
Mr. McCarthy’s decision to provide Mr. Carlson with the video footage drew harsh criticism over security risks..
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who was chairman of the Jan. 6 committee and is the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security panel, said Monday that there could be major security risks if the material were used irresponsibly.
“If Speaker McCarthy has indeed granted Tucker Carlson — a Fox host who routinely spreads misinformation and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s poisonous propaganda — and his producers access to this sensitive footage, he owes the American people an explanation of why he has done so and what steps he has taken to address the significant security concerns at stake,” Mr. Thompson said in a statement.