WASHINGTON – Most Senate Republicans are not interested in rewriting history on January 6, 2021, even as influential Fox News host Tucker Carlson downplayed the unrest in the US Capitol.
During his program Monday night, Carlson aired a selectively edited Capitol surveillance video of the attack, depicting the horrific event. is a gentle tourist visit with Donald Trump supporters calmly walked through the Capitol.
“I think it’s nonsense,” Sen. Thom Tillis (RN.C.) to reporters Tuesday when asked about Carlson’s description of the event was mostly peaceful. “If you see a police officer being attacked, that’s all … if you’re just a tourist, you should line up at the visitor center and get in in an orderly manner.”
“I was there on January 6. I saw how violent it was,” Senator Mike Rounds (RS.D.) added.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (RN.D.) said January 6 “clearly more than a peaceful protest of some rowdy scouts,” while Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) said he is not interested in “whitewashing” events.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) erred by handing over the length of the surveillance only to Carlson.
“It’s very sad to see Tucker Carlson go off the rails like that. The American people saw what happened on January 6. They saw the people injured. They saw the damage to the buildings. You can’t hide the truth by choosing a few minutes from the tape .It doesn’t make sense, it’s bullshit,” Romney said.
Federal prosecutors have charged nearly 1,000 people with crimes for their actions that day, according to the Department of Justice, including more than 300 for assaulting or harassing the police. More than 500 rioters have pleaded guilty, 60 of them to assaulting officers.
Crowds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which the former president has claimed for months has been stolen from him. Trump had called his supporters to Washington for “wild” protests and then stormed into the day with a speech near the White House, telling them to move to the Capitol.
Carlson obtained the tapes exclusively from McCarthy, who said last year that “nobody disagrees” that the riots were violent insurrections. It is unclear whether McCarthy still feels that way; he declined to answer questions about Carlson when he entered the office Tuesday afternoon.
McCarthy won the speaker’s gavel by pandering to the right side of the caucus, and offered security footage to Carlson as part of the effort. From the start, some House Republicans sought to blame Trump for letting the crowd go, and the new Republican majority even created a committee dedicated to cracking down on the FBI.
Trump and far-right House GOP members like Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia are now calling for Trump supporters who have been indicted or pleaded guilty on Jan. 6 to be released from prison, including what they call “QAnon Shaman” who stormed the barricades in the Capitol and took photos on the dais in the Senate chamber.
“I don’t know why this guy got 41 months [in jail] to walk the Capitol with the flag in hand. It makes no sense,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a top Trump ally who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who also voted to throw out some of the results of the 2020 election, credited Carlson for giving “a more accurate picture of what really happened” on January 6.
Those who were there were not always at the Capitol that day, and those who were there went through police lines to get in. Most of the defendants have been charged with unlawfully entering or remaining in federal buildings.
Playing to the base about the January 6 event may help McCarthy strengthen his position on the right, but it will do nothing to help Republicans win national elections, as evidenced by their losses in the 2022 election.
“Completely placating the base of my party is not the right way forward for the Republican Party or for the country,” said Romney.
“For me, it’s time to move on from that,” Cramer added. “It really does nothing to improve whether our party is moving forward.”