Handed over nearly 41,000 hours of security footage on Jan. 6, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson offered a new take on the deadly Capitol attack, tying the Republican Party more closely to pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2021 riots. Started trying.
The conservative commentator aired the first installment on his prime-time show Monday to millions of viewers, working to turn perceptions of the violent, gruesome siege that played out into a Donald Trump-friendly narrative for the world to see Went. A short extra bit was shown on Tuesday amid calls from critics for a shutdown.
Fox News’ move comes as Trump is running for president again, and the cable news giant’s highest-level executives have admitted in unrelated court proceedings that it has publicly rejected Trump’s claims despite privately Spread false claims about the 2020 election by the former president.
The effort coincided with work by Republicans on Capitol Hill, led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who turned over the security footage to Fox. Republicans are trying to retract the findings of the House’s Jan. 6 investigation, which painstakingly documented, with testimony and video evidence, how Trump exhorted his supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.” as the Congress was certifying its loss. Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump claimed Tuesday that Tucker Carlson’s presentation was “irrefutable” evidence that rioters have been wrongly accused of crimes and thanked the host and speaker for their work. Tucker Carlson praised McCarthy for “improving” the official record.
Trump renewed calls for the release from custody of those who have been convicted or pleaded guilty to assault charges.
At the same time, criticism from Democrats – and also from some top Republicans – came over the GOP’s effort to amplify lies about the attack, which was watched around the world as Trump supporters lay siege to the seat of American democracy.
Representative Benny G. Thompson, the Democrat who chaired the House January 6 committee that was investigating the riots, called the decision to selectively release security footage of McCarthy a “dereliction of duty.”
“The speaker decided that it was more important to deliver the lies and propaganda the Fox host provided than to protect the Capitol,” Thompson said in a statement. He called 6 January “one of the darkest days in the history of our democracy”.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Tucker Carlson’s Fox News episode on Monday night “one of the most embarrassing hours we’ve ever seen on television.”
The show’s portrayal was “an insult to every single police officer,” Schumer said, especially the family of Brian Sicknick, who later died after fighting a mob. “Nonviolent? Ask his family.
Speaker of the House McCarthy defends the broadcast
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said it was a mistake for Fox News to portray the footage as it did – with Capitol Police’s assessment and what he and others first saw at the Capitol on January 6.
But McCarthy, who has shifted from blaming Trump for the riots to softening his criticism of the former president, stood by his decision, saying people can watch and “come to their own conclusions.” “
In the roughly 30-minute segment, Fox distilled thousands of hours of footage of the horrific scenes at the Capitol that day and showed part of the mayhem as rioters laid siege to the building, breaking windows and kicking it down. doors to gain entry.
But Tucker Carlson also insisted on the imagery of the invaders, some in combat gear and manning flagpoles, merely milling about the sleeping halls, taking photographs of the surroundings during pauses in the hours-long attack.
“These weren’t rebels. They were sightseers,” Tucker Carlson said.
The footage they aired focused on one of the high-profile rioters, Jacob Chanceley, the “Q’on Shaman”, clutching his horned hat and bare chest, as he stood around the building, officers were standing or opening doors. Chancelle pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Tucker Carlson denounced the Jan. 6 committee, which was led by Democrats in the previous Congress, and called Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, prominent Republican critics of Trump, on the panel as liars.
Tucker Carlson is reviving a lie launched by Trump and his allies, including Republicans in Congress, that the attackers were peaceful protesters and acted like tourists, after the well-documented massacre and riots of the day and the death of five people. Despite. It is part of an effort to reverse criminal charges for those being prosecuted in the attack, many of whom have pleaded guilty and said they are sorry for their actions on Jan. 6.
Capitol Police officers defending against the mob testified of their horrific experiences – one said she was slipping in other people’s blood, while another described being crushed to death by the crowd – as they worked and Ultimately failed to stop the rioters from attacking the Capitol.
Criminal cases arising out of the riots have exposed the violence. The officers testified in court that they were chased, hit, and dragged and their lives were in danger while trying to protect the Capitol. One tweeted pictures of his cuts, stitches and swelling marks from that day late Monday.
Among those who died in the riot and aftermath were Trump supporter Ashley Babbitt who was shot by police and Capitol Police Officer Siknik who was killed after fighting with the crowd.
Tucker Carlson is shown inside the Capitol raising Sicknick’s poster and politely escorting protesters out the door, showing evidence that the officer was not killed in the crush.
That last one was condemned by Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger as “the most disturbing allegation from last night”.
The chief manager said in a memo to his police force, “The department contends, as any man with common sense might do, that if Officer Sicknick had not fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently attacked, Had the attack been made, Officer Siknik would not have died the next day.” ,
He said the program was “cherry-picking” the calmer moments of the day, ignoring “the chaos and violence that happened before or during”.
The Siknik family said in a statement that the footage only showed how Brian Siknik briefly bravely resumed his duties after being attacked by a chemical agent.
Brian Sicknick’s brother, Ken Sicknick, said in an interview that the family was “at a loss” as to how to fight back against a network with millions of viewers and the Speaker of the House, who provided access to the footage.
Law enforcement failures were investigated and acknowledged in Congress on 6 January: police failed to heed signs of an impending attack and were slow to provide an adequate response, including reinforcements from the National Guard.
More than half of the nearly 1,000 people charged with federal riot-related crimes in the capital have pleaded guilty, according to an Associated Press tally, including more than 130 who have pleaded guilty to felonies.
Members of the extremist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups are facing rare charges of treason for their roles at the front of the attack. Several members of the Oath Keepers have been found guilty of treason. Hundreds of other rioters were only charged with misdemeanors and many have not served any jail time.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are attempting to retell the history of January 6 through the House Administration Committee, which has opened an online portal for submissions from the public.
Some GOP leaders, however, appeared uncomfortable with McCarthy’s move and the way the footage was being used.
McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, quickly distanced himself from the effort, saying he wanted to “align himself more fully” with the police chief’s views.
McConnell said, “Clearly the chief of the Capitol Police correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on January 6th.”