Fox News host Tucker Carlson debuted his first segment featuring security footage of the Jan. 6 riot on Monday, airing clips from inside the Capitol that the prime-time host said showcased “mostly peaceful chaos.”
Carlson gained access to the surveillance video after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) agreed to hand over more than 41,000 hours of footage as part of his concessions to be elected speaker in January. The trove of video evidence includes camera access from several angles on the Capitol grounds that was exclusively given to Carlson’s crew despite requests from other news outlets to obtain the footage.
MCCARTHY HIT WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT AFTER HANDING OVER JAN. 6 TAPES TO TUCKER CARLSON
The House speaker has vowed to make the footage available to other news outlets once Carlson’s crew is finished sifting through it, but it’s unclear how long that may take.
Here are the top five things to know about the footage released by Carlson and how congressional Democrats are responding:
Carlson seeks to portray Jan. 6 riot as a 'mostly peaceful' gathering
Throughout his show on Monday, Carlson sought to use never-before-seen clips of the Jan. 6 attack to argue the incident was a “mostly peaceful” gathering of protesters — even going so far as to accuse other news outlets of falsely characterizing the attack as an “insurrection.”
“The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress,” Carlson said. “Instead, it shows police escorting people through the building, including the now-infamous ‘QAnon Shaman.’”
Carlson played footage that showed Jacob Chansley, who has become known as the “QAnon Shaman,” walking around the Capitol without resistance from security officials. In one clip, Chansley is seen walking alongside two officers to the Senate chamber, where he is later seen taking a photo inside.
While walking around, video footage does not appear to show any of the officers intervening — prompting Carlson to accuse Capitol Police of being complicit “as his tour guides.” It’s not clear from the video whether Chansley and the officers engaged in conversations, as there is no audio in the tapes.
Capitol Police officers have previously testified that they repeatedly asked Chansley to leave, according to court documents. Several other officers have testified they were hesitant to engage with rioters who had made their way inside the Capitol, noting they were afraid of escalating violence. As a result, many rioters were able to make their way into the building without much of a fight.
However, some security experts who reviewed the clips said the footage could be interpreted either way, raising questions about whether law enforcement officials were carrying out deescalation orders or whether they were allowing rioters in.
"These are interesting questions that I don't have the answers to," said Bill Stanton, a retired NYPD officer and current safety and security expert. "But if anyone wanted to really dig — I'm talking about a government investigation — they can have those answers. The fact that no one's supplying those answers makes me tilt my head."
One way to know for sure would be to examine internal memos and communications between USCP officers before, during, and after the riot to understand the chain of command, Stanton said.
"The devil is in the details," he said.
Carlson accuses Democrats of lying about severity of attack
Carlson also accused Democrats of lying about several aspects of the Jan. 6 riot, including the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. Sicknick died of natural causes one day after the Capitol riot, but an autopsy report ruled that “all that transpired (on January 6) played a role in his condition.”
However, Carlson sought to downplay his death, accusing Democrats of using Sicknick as a “prop” and “martyr.”
The Fox News host played several clips showing Sicknick’s movements on the day of the Capitol riot, which Carlson said showed him looking “healthy and vigorous.” As a result, Carlson said he found it “hard to imagine” the riot contributed to Sicknick’s death.
Sicknick’s family responded to Carlson’s comments, denouncing Fox News as being the “propaganda arm of the Republican Party.”
“Tucker Carlson claims that Fox has been looking over the video feeds from the Capitol, with full access supplied by our disgusting excuse for a House Speaker for the truth,” his family wrote in a scathing statement. “Carlson’s ‘truth’ is to pick and choose footage that supports his delusional views that the Jan. 6th insurrection was peaceful. … Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it. Leave us the hell alone.”
Capitol Police only vetted one clip aired on Carlson’s show
Congressional Democrats have repeatedly spoken out against McCarthy’s decision to give Carlson the footage, with several calling the move dangerous to national security. House Republican leaders pushed back on those accusations, vowing that no video clips would be broadcast without security clearance from Capitol Police.
Carlson told viewers that Fox News had cleared all its video footage with law enforcement officials before his show on Monday, noting they had only “minor” concerns.
“In the end, the only change that we made was in blurring the details of a single interior door in the Capitol building,” Carlson said.
However, spokespeople for the Capitol Police told the Washington Examiner that Carlson’s crew had only provided “a single clip out of the multiple clips” that were aired despite multiple requests “that any clips be shown to us first for a security review.”
USCP Chief Thomas Manger also hit Carlson, noting his team "never reached out to the Department to provide accurate context."
"One false allegation is that our officers helped the rioters," Manger said in an internal email to Capitol Police officers. "This is outrageous and false. ... I don't have to remind you how outnumbered our officers were on January 6. Those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk to rioters into getting each other to leave the building."
Carlson said he plans to release more footage during his show on Tuesday, although it’s not clear if those clips have been cleared by Capitol Police.
Democrats slam McCarthy and Carlson
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) responded to Carlson’s show in a floor speech Tuesday morning, criticizing the Fox News host for attempting to portray the riot as a peaceful Capitol visit.
“[Carlson] tried to argue it was nothing more than a peaceful sightseeing tour. Can you imagine?" Schumer said. “By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy and cherry-picking from thousands of hours of security footage, Mr. Carlson told the bold-faced lie that the Capitol attack, which we all saw with our own eyes, was somehow not an attack at all.”
Schumer also placed blame on McCarthy, decrying the House speaker as being “every bit as culpable” for making the footage available.
"Conduct like theirs is just asking for another Jan. 6 to happen," Schumer said.
The Democratic leader then urged Fox News to stop Carlson from airing additional footage, specifically calling out media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
“And he’s going to come back tonight for another segment,” Schumer said. “Fox News should tell him not to. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, tell Carlson not to run a second segment of lies. You know it’s a lie, you’ve admitted it’s a lie,” he added, referring to testimony from Murdoch that he had the opportunity to stop Fox News hosts from promoting false claims the 2020 election was rigged in favor of President Joe Biden — but he chose not to, according to court documents released last week.
Other Democrats also weighed in on Carlson's show, accusing both him and McCarthy of trying to "overthrow democracy."
"This propaganda channel’s owner admitted that its hosts deliberate lied to its viewers to overthrow democracy," Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) tweeted. "It’s 2023 and nothing has changed. Pure poison lies."
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) echoed similar statements, arguing the pair was attempting to rewrite history.
"Tucker Carlson is a conspiracy theorist and a liar," he tweeted. "He always denied the January 6 assault on our democracy and defended the criminals who injured police officers. Kevin McCarthy knew that. He wants to whitewash 1/6 — and he’s still hiding what he did that day from the country."
McCarthy faces ethics complaint after handing Carlson access to footage
McCarthy faces an ethics complaint filed by a nonprofit watchdog group that accuses the GOP leader of being politically motivated in his release of security camera footage to Carlson.
Members of Public Citizen filed a complaint against McCarthy on Tuesday, requesting that the Office of Congressional Ethics investigate the speaker over whether he violated House rules. The request comes one day after Carlson began releasing portions of the footage on his prime-time show, prompting concerns among other news outlets he would “advocate an inaccurate story of events.”
“The Speaker’s release of security footage exclusively to Tucker Carlson is pure and simple using congressional resources for partisan gamesmanship — the very type of polarizing gamesmanship that has caused such damage to the public’s perception of the integrity of Congress,” the group wrote in its letter.
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McCarthy defended releasing the surveillance tapes, arguing the release was important to ensure a transparent investigation. He’s also pushed back against complaints that he released the footage to only Carlson, brushing off criticism as other journalists just being “jealous.”
“And that’s interesting because every person in the press works off exclusives on certain things,” McCarthy told the Washington Post.