Carlson’s assessment of riot footage assailed
Not ‘insurrectionists,’ but rather ‘sightseers’
Handed some 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 security footage, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson has begun reporting on it.
In a roughly 30-minute segment Monday, Fox distilled the thousands of hours of footage of the scenes at the Capitol that day and did show some of the hand-to-hand combat as rioters laid siege to the building, broke windows and kicked down doors to gain entry.
But Carlson also emphasized imagery of the invaders, some in combat gear and wielding flagpoles, merely milling about the gilded halls, taking pictures of the surroundings during pauses in the hourslong attack.
“These were not insurrectionists. They were sightseers,” Carlson said.
A small additional bit was shown Tuesday amid calls from critics to stop.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday contended that Carlson’s presentation was “irrefutable” evidence that rioters have been wrongly accused of crimes and he thanked the host and the speaker for their work.
Carlson praised Speaker of the House Kevin Mccarthy, R-calif., as having “rectified” the official record.
At the same time, criticism poured in Tuesday from Democrats — and some top Republicans, too.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Monday night Fox News episode from Carlson “one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on television.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell said it was a mistake for Fox News to depict the footage as it did — at odds with what he and others witnessed firsthand at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
But Mccarthy stood by his decision, saying people can watch and “come up with their own conclusion.”
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen and ethics advisers who served in the White House under President Barack Obama and George W. Bush submitted a complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics on Tuesday urging an investigation of Mccarthy’s exclusive release of Jan. 6 footage to Fox News.
Mccarthy has called the deal with Carlson an “exclusive” and has promised to release the footage to other outlets.
The footage Carlson aired focused on one of the highest-profile rioters, Jacob Chansley, the “Qanon Shaman,” garbed in his horned hat and bare-chested, as he poked around the building, officers standing by or opening doors.
Chansley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Carlson denounced the Jan. 6 committee led by Democrats in the past Congress, and called out Trump’s chief Republican critics Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger as liars on the panel.
Among those who died in the riot and its aftermath were Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt who was shot by police and Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick who died after fighting the mob.
Carlson aired footage of Sicknick inside the Capitol picking up posters and politely ushering protesters out the door, portraying that as evidence the officer was not killed in the crush.
“The Department maintains, as anyone with common sense would, that had Officer Sicknick not fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted, Officer Sicknick would not have died the next day,” Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a memo to his police force.
He said the program “cherry-picked” from calmer moments of the day, ignoring “the chaos and violence that happened before or during.”
The Sicknick family said in a statement that the footage simply showed that Sicknick bravely resumed his duties for a time after he had been attacked by a chemical agent.