House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gave Fox News host Tucker Carlson access to 41,000 hours of surveillance footage taken at the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riot.
Excerpts of the footage will air on Fox News in the coming weeks, according to Axios’ Mike Allen, who first reported McCarthy shared the tape with Carlson. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed the Axios report to HuffPost.
Carlson told Axios “there is no legitimate reason for this record to remain secret.”
“If there is a question that is in the public interest to know, it is what really happened on January 6. By definition, this video will be open,” Carlson said, according to Axios. “It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would bother.”
Carlson has repeatedly defended those who stormed the Capitol, calling the hearing conducted by a House select committee investigating Jan. 6 “propaganda” and many pointing to conspiracy theories about the driving forces behind the riots.
In a November letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), McCarthy demanded on January 6 that the committee preserves all the evidence collected, hear what and the transcript, something the rules of the House have required. McCarthy suggested that the committee, which Thompson chaired, focused heavily on the actions of former President Donald Trump around January 6, and said House Republicans would further probe “why the Capitol Complex is not safe” today.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the January 6 panel, called McCarthy’s release of the length to Carlson “an astounding ethical collapse.”
far-right figure like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Donald Trump Jr. celebrate the news, and McCarthy’s role in sharing it, there.
A new court filing revealed that Carlson called Trump a “demonic force” and a “destroyer” after rioters stormed the Capitol, although he continued to defend Trump during the show’s premiere. The filing also shows skepticism from some Fox News hosts about voter fraud claims pushed by Trump allies like lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
In response to an earlier story about a court filing from lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing the network for $1.6 billion for defamation, a Fox News spokesperson downplayed the document.
“There is a lot of noise and confusion caused by Dominion and opportunistic private equity owners, but the heart of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights granted by the Constitution and protected by New York. Times v. Sullivan,” said the spokesman talk Fox News.