House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) defended his decision to release tapes of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, making the case during a closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) daughter had access to the footage and the Jan. 6 committee provided clips to networks.
Top Democrats in both chambers have slammed the move, arguing that providing Carlson with access poses a security risk to the Capitol and that the Jan. 6 committee worked with the Capitol Police to ensure the safety of those working within the Capitol complex is not compromised. But Republicans have largely been in agreement with McCarthy, with conservatives pushing for all of the footage to be made public during the heated speaker’s race as a way to provide transparency.
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“McCarthy contextualized the tapes. Explaining Pelosi’s daughter exposed the safety room in the documentary and [Democrats] released the escape route of Pence and his own escape route,” one GOP lawmaker in the meeting told the Washington Examiner.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) accused the Jan. 6 select committee and Democrats of being “selective” in terms of which clips were released to networks during the last Congress and asserted that they were taking strides to ensure that no sensitive information that could compromise the safety of those working on the Capitol campus would be made public
“Well, of course, if you watch what the Jan. 6 committee did under Speaker Pelosi, they actually released a lot of video that was very sensitive. I mean, they literally released video of Vice President Pence exiting the Capitol showing the route that he takes — I didn't hear a lot of concern about that back then,” he told reporters.
“We were concerned how selective they were, but ultimately, Speaker McCarthy has talked about going through and then what gets released is going to obviously be scrutinized to make sure that you're not exposing any sensitive information that hasn't, by the way, already been exposed," he added. "What Speaker Pelosi did was expose a lot of sensitive information, including what was an undisclosed location, where the leadership of both parties went after her daughter was videoing inside of that military base.”
The footage is expected to be made available to other networks after Fox News uses the video.
Democratic lawmakers have taken issue with McCarthy providing the information to Carlson first, arguing that he has promoted conspiracy theories and downplayed the severity of the attack on the Capitol.
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“I write with respect to public reports that extreme MAGA Republicans in the House have provided tens of thousands of hours of sensitive Capitol security footage to a FOX News personality who regularly peddles in conspiracy theories and Pro-Putin rhetoric,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote in a recent “Dear Colleague” letter.
“At present, we are working to confirm the precise nature of the video transfer, particularly as it relates to the events connected to the violent insurrection on January 6, 2021," he added. "The apparent transfer of video footage represents an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol Police, who valiantly defended our democracy with their lives at risk on that fateful day.”