House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Vows To Release January 6 Capitol Surveillance Footage To Public: Report
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McCarthy to ‘Slowly Roll Out’ Jan. 6 Footage to Media Outlets
Last updated Mar 13, 2023
Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesFacts
- US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Sunday that he would "slowly roll out" to other media outlets the 40k hours of security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. He's so far given Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access.[1]
- Carlson aired some of the footage last week, using it to claim the events of that day, which led to roughly 1k people being charged with crimes, were "mostly peaceful chaos."[2]
- Both McCarthy's decision to grant Carlson exclusive access and Carlson’s depiction of the events of that day have been criticized. Former Republican VP Mike Pence called what occurred on Jan. 6 a "disgrace" and argued Carlson’s depiction "mocks decency."[3]
- In his interview, McCarthy accused the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riots of misrepresenting what happened that day, in light of many Republicans describing the events as peaceful protests.[4]
- McCarthy also drew a comparison between those arrested in relation to Jan. 6 and racial-justice protesters from the summer of 2020, who he said didn’t face prosecution for violent acts.[4]
Spin
Pro-Trump narrative
Legacy media outlets worked in concert with the Democrat-dominated Jan. 6 committee to propagate a narrative around Jan. 6 that was very different from what happened. Therefore, it was important for transparency’s sake to release the footage to Carlson so he could show the miscarriage of justice that’s been brought against many citizens. Criticism of McCarthy's rollout is absurd, as other outlets will eventually get to see the footage and draw their own conclusions.
Democratic narrative
Rolling out the footage to other media outlets won’t mitigate the damage already done by granting Carlson, a spreader of conspiracy theories related to Jan. 6, access to it to then present biased reports and disinformation to his audience. The footage belongs to every American and should have been treated as such. McCarthy has either made a tremendous error in judgment or used his power to deliberately work with GOP-friendly media to build a false narrative.
