House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has spoken up for the first time publicly since releasing some 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 surveillance video to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“I promised,” McCarthy told The New York Times on Wednesday. “I was asked in the press about these tapes, and I said they do belong to the American public. I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment.”

Last month, McCarthy announced his intention to release the tapes due to what he perceived as the “politicization” of the issue by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the January 6 Committee. However, McCarthy has not disclosed how he plans to release the tapes.

According to a report by Axios on Monday, it was revealed that McCarthy shared 41,000 hours of surveillance footage with Carlson. The incident occurred when a group of people entered the U.S. Capitol and disrupted lawmakers who were meeting to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Later on his show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Carlson announced that his team had been granted what they believe to be “unfettered” access to the tapes and that they plan to start sharing their findings next week.

“Some of our smartest producers have been there looking at this stuff, trying to figure out what it means and how it contradicts, or not, the story that we’ve been told for more than two years,” Carlson said. “We think already that, in some ways, it does contradict that story.”

Tucker Carlson Announces That His Show Has Been Granted Access To 44k Hours Of Footage From January 6th

"We believe that access is unfettered. We believe we have secured the right to see whatever we want to see."

"We're going to spend the rest of this week taking a look at it,… https://t.co/sK7691S0n8 pic.twitter.com/GnPvtbENg5

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) February 21, 2023

Several Republicans applauded the move, including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who earlier opposed McCarthy’s speakership. “Thank you [McCarthy] for following through on this!” she tweeted Monday. “The public deserves to see everything that was hidden.”

Tucker Carlson now has 41,000 hours of January 6 footage that Pelosi held for over two years.

Thank you @SpeakerMcCarthy for following through on this!

The public deserves to see everything that was hidden.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 20, 2023

The absence of any response from McCarthy’s office gave Democrats an opportunity to make alarming statements about the disclosure of the footage and its potential risks to Capitol security without any rebuttal from the source.

In a letter to House Democrats on Tuesday, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) stated that his team is “working to confirm the precise nature of the video transfer,” which he called a “reported breach,” and he noted that there was “no indication” that McCarthy and Carlson followed the protocols adopted by the January 6 Committee in handling the footage.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) followed with a letter to his colleagues on Wednesday, warning that McCarthy’s move to make the footage available “would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch” as it contains closely held information about the protection of the Capitol complex, and would enable those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded.

“Kevin McCarthy undermines security on Capitol Hill – in ways officials say could endanger the safety of Capitol Police officers – to feed January 6 footage to a propagandist who downplayed the attack on the Capitol,” tweeted Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). “Now McCarthy is using that to raise money. Absolutely appalling.”

Kevin McCarthy undermines security on Capitol Hill – in ways officials say could endanger the safety of Capitol Police officers – to feed January 6 footage to a propagandist who downplayed the attack on the Capitol. Now McCarthy is using that to raise money. Absolutely appalling. https://t.co/a7I1JxJ5rK

— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) February 22, 2023