WASHINGTON – Conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Monday that he and his team have gained access to nearly 44,000 hours of security camera footage taken during the Jan. 6 uprising.
“So there’s about 44,000 hours, and you would have read, we’ve been given access to that,” Carlson said on his prime-time show. “We believe that access is unfettered. We believe that we have secured the right to see whatever we want to see.”
Carlson said his producers are looking at the footage “trying to figure out what it means and how it contradicts or doesn’t contradict the story we’ve been told for two years” about 6 January. He said his team plans to spend the rest. Weeks is going through it and said he will “bring you what we find next week.”
The Fox News anchor’s comments followed a report from Axios on Monday that said, citing unnamed sources, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., granted Carlson access to security footage from the US Capitol Police .
NBC News has not independently verified this report. McCarthy’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, DN.Y, wrote in a letter Tuesday to colleagues obtained by NBC News that the move was “a serious security breach that puts the hard-working women and men of the United States’ Capitol Police at risk.” “
Lawmakers from both parties also reacted to the report ahead of Carlson’s Monday night broadcast.
Representative Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who served on the House January 6 Committee, called Carlson “a guy who spits out the Kremlin. January 6th was a false flag. And spreads big lies.”
Jan. 6 Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee’s former chair, said in a lengthy statement that his panel treated video footage provided by Capitol Police with great sensitivity.
“It is difficult to overstate the potential security risks if this material is used irresponsibly,” Thompson said. “If Speaker McCarthy did in fact give Tucker Carlson – a Fox host who regularly spreads misinformation and toxic anti-Putin propaganda – and his producers access to this sensitive footage, he owes the American people an explanation that Why has it done so and what steps has it taken to address the important security concerns at stake.”
Rape. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., On Twitter said the news reaffirmed his support for McCarthy as speaker and that “Americans deserve to see the truth.”
Carlsen has long downplayed the violence on 6 January. He is known for spreading conspiracy theories and lies on his shows.
In a statement Tuesday, Michael Fannon, a former Metropolitan D.C. police officer who was seriously wounded protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6, predicted that the video footage would be used as “an extreme act without regard for the safety of the Capitol.” Will be selectively edited to fit the maga narrative.” Police, members of Congress and employees of Congress.”
“The broadcast of footage from restricted areas of the Capitol and sensitive evacuation protocols, all while spreading misinformation about the nature of the attack, put everyone working in the building at risk,” Fanon said.
Fanon said that if McCarthy was really interested in transparency, he would release the footage to all news outlets or continue the work of the January 6 Committee.
He added that McCarthy’s “decision is proof that he would love to weaponize this to score cheap political points. Tucker Carlson is not a journalist, he is an entertainer who promotes propaganda and conspiracy theories – but As someone who defended the Capitol on January 6th, there is nothing amusing in this.” Everything for me about that day.”
Garrett Hawke, Liz Brown-Kaiser, Ryan Nobles, Haley Talbot And Ali Vitali Contribution,
