02/22/2023 By Peyton Benbow
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has granted conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson access to exclusive footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. This initiative has fired up House Representatives: some Republicans praise the move to release the footage to FOX News, while some Democrats criticize the potential exposure of U.S. Capitol security measures.
Carlson produced a documentary on the Jan. 6 riots, claiming the surveillance footage was hidden because of possible undisclosed corrupt behavior. His claims downplay the events of Jan. 6, arguing that the footage will expose a different truth than what the House Committee determined last year.
Monday night on FOX News, Tucker Carlson announced that his team has access to 41,000 hours of footage, stating, “We believe that access is unfettered. We believe we have secured the right to see whatever we want to see”.
This move comes after the right-wing cable host strongly criticized Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It prompted a positive reaction from Republican House members who believe this full disclosure is deserved.
“I’m very happy to be right again in my support for Kevin McCarthy as our Speaker. Americans deserve to see the truth,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) wrote on Twitter last Monday morning.
Meanwhile, this disclosure of sensitive surveillance footage rouses worries among the Democrats, as minority leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote in a letter to his colleagues that giving Jan 6, 2021, footage to FOX News poses a “grave threat to security.” Democrats argue that the footage may contain sensitive security details like the rioters’ access routes and routes lawmakers used to leave.
On Monday night, Carlson said he and his team would spend the week reviewing the footage before reporting on it.