Tucker Carlson Shows January 6th Capitol Footage To Try To Downplay Riot: “They Were Sightseers”
07.03.2023 - 06:19
/ deadline.com
Tucker Carlson aired the first clips of January 6th Capitol surveillance footag on Monday, and the Fox News host spent much of the time using clips to downplay the attack on the Capitol and cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election.
Carlson had heavily promoted the footage, suggesting that it would refute findings from the January 6th Committee and even prove that they were lying. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had provided Carlson with exclusive access to about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the Capitol, to the dismay of committee members wary of the Fox host’s pushing of conspiracy theories surrounding the attack.
Carlson showed footage of protesters wandering through the halls of the Capitol to claim that “the video record” actually refutes the idea that “January 6th was an insurrection.”
While he said that there were “hooligans” who created havoc, the “overwhelming majority” were not violent.
“These were not insurrectionists. They were sightseers. Footage from inside the Capitol overturns the story you have heard about January 6,” Carlson said.
But Carlson did not mention the widespread injury and destruction to the Capitol that day. Capitol Police reported that 114 officers were injured, and one officer died as the result of a stroke and four died by suicide. But TV viewers also could see for themselves what was happening live, with the scenes of the mob trying to break through the doors of the House, or of images of a gallows and noose set up on Capitol grounds. One video, shown during the January 6th Committee hearings, showed that those in the mob shouted, “Hang Mike Pence!”
Carlson kicked off his show by justifying the mob’s presence at the Capitol that day.
“The protesters were angry,” Carlson