House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) provided Fox News host Tucker Carlson with 41,000 hours of U.S. Capitol surveillance footage exclusively related to the January 6 riot. It is expected that the footage will be aired on Carlson’s programs in the upcoming weeks.
Axios sources have indicated that TV producers working with Carlson started to review the footage on Capitol Hill last week.
“[T]here was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret,” Carlson told Axios. “If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6.”
During the events of January 6, 2021, a group of people breached the U.S. Capitol, interrupting a joint session of Congress that was in the process of certifying the 2020 presidential election results in favor of President Joe Biden. According to Capitol Police, cameras located in and around the Capitol recorded over 14,000 hours of footage between noon and 8 p.m. that day.
However, Axios suggests that an additional nearly 30,000 hours of footage related to the event also exist, the Daily Wire reported.
“By definition, this video will reveal it,” Carlson said. “It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that.”
Although various entities, including Democratic-controlled congressional committees and law enforcement, were granted access to the Capitol Police archive of January 6 footage, the police cautioned against sharing it with attorneys of defendants without adequate safeguards to prevent its unauthorized copying and dissemination. This warning raised national security concerns among government officials.
After an 18-month investigation and hearings that included selected security video clips, the January 6 Committee released its final report last month, recommending charges against former President Donald Trump and releasing dozens of witness materials. McCarthy was among several House Republicans recommended by the committee for ethics sanctions after failing to comply with its subpoenas, the outlet continued.
McCarthy previously indicated his intention to pursue the disclosure of unreleased U.S. Capitol security footage from the day of the riot.
The Speaker told reporters the American public “should see” what happened while taking a shot at the January 6 Committee’s final report that he said was “written for a political basis.”
“We’re looking through that,” McCarthy said. “I want to be very thoughtful about it. But yes, I’m engaged to do that.”
Last month, House Republicans Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Troy Nehls (R-TX), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) released a 141-page report detailing their investigation into what they perceive as shortcomings on the part of House Democratic leadership and Capitol authorities, which left the complex exposed to the events of that day.
Banks, who led the GOP effort, said the report “exposes the partisanship, incompetence, and indifference that led to the disaster on January 6 and it the leading role Speaker Pelosi and her office played in the security failure at the Capitol.”
