Tucker Carlson amplifies Jan. 6 lies with GOP-provided video
Tucker Carlson amplifies Jan. 6 lies with GOP-provided video
By LISA MASCARO, MARY CLARE JALONICK and FARNOUSH AMIRI The Associated Press
FILE - Rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Speaker Kevin McCarthys decision to unleash a trove of Jan. 6 Capitol attack footage to Fox News Tucker Carlson has launched a wholesale rewriting of the history of the deadly siege. Carlson aired the first installment of some 41,000 hours of security footage on his prime-time show and promised more Tuesday. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/John Minchillo]
WASHINGTON (AP) Handed some 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 security footage, Fox News Tucker Carlson has launched an impassioned new effort to explain away the deadly Capitol attack, linking the Republican Party ever more closely to pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2021 riot.
The conservative commentator aired a first installment to millions of viewers on his prime-time show, working to bend perceptions of the violent, grueling siege that played out for the world to see into a narrative favorable to Donald Trump.
He promised more Tuesday night.
The undertaking by Fox News comes as Trump is again running for president, and executives at the highest levels of the cable news giant have admitted in unrelated court proceedings that it spread the former presidents false claims about the 2020 election despite dismissing Trumps assertions privately.
The effort dovetails with the work of Republicans on Capitol Hill, led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who turned over the security footage to Fox. The Republicans are trying to claw back the findings of the House Jan. 6 investigation, which painstakingly documented, with testimony and video evidence, how Trump rallied his supporters to head to the Capitol and fight like hell as Congress was certifying his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
FILE - Rioters are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Speaker Kevin McCarthys decision to unleash a trove of Jan. 6 Capitol attack footage to Fox News Tucker Carlson has launched a wholesale rewriting of the history of the deadly siege. Carlson aired the first installment of some 41,000 hours of security footage on his prime-time show and promised more Tuesday. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Trump on Tuesday contended that Carlsons presentation was irrefutable evidence that rioters have been wrongly accused of crimes and he thanked the host and the speaker for their work. Carlson praised McCarthy as having rectified the official record.
Trump called anew for the release from custody of people who have been convicted or have pleaded guilty to charges from the attack.
At the same time, criticism poured in from Democrats and some top Republicans, too over the GOPs attempt to amplify falsehoods about the attack that was seen around the world as Trump supporters laid siege to the seat of U.S. democracy.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the Democrat who chaired the House Jan. 6 Committee investigating the riot, called McCarthys decision to selectively release the security footage a dereliction of duty.
Despite repeated warnings as to the sensitive nature of this footage, the speaker decided it was more important to give in to a Fox host who spews lies and propaganda than to protect the Capitol, Thompson said in a statement. He called Jan. 6 one of the darkest days in the history of our democracy.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Monday night Fox News episode from Carlson one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on television.
The shows portrayal was an insult to every single police officer, Schumer said, especially the family of Brian Sicknick, who died later after fighting the mob. Nonviolent? Ask his family.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said it was a mistake for Fox News to depict the footage as it did at odds with what he and others witnessed first hand at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
In the roughly 30-minute segment, Fox distilled the thousands of hours of footage of the gruesome scenes at the Capitol that day and did show some of the hand-to-hand combat as rioters laid siege to the building, broke windows and kicked down doors to gain entry.
But he also emphasized imagery of the invaders, some in combat gear and wielding flagpoles, merely milling about the gilded halls, taking pictures of the surroundings during pauses in the hours-long attack.
These were not insurrectionist. They were sightseers, Carlson said.
The footage he aired focused on one of the highest-profile rioters, Jacob Chansley, the QAnon Shaman, garbed in his horned hat and bare chested, as he poked around the building, officers standing by or opening doors. Chansley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Carlson denounced the Jan. 6 committee led by Democrats in the past Congress, and called out Trumps chief Republican critics Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger as liars on the panel.
He said most of rioters were not destroying the Capitol, they obviously revere the Capitol.
Carlson is reviving the falsehoods launched by Trump and his allies, including Republicans in Congress, that the attackers were peaceful protesters and acted like tourists, despite the well-documented carnage of the day and the deaths of five people in the riot and its aftermath. Its part of an effort to reverse criminal charges for those being prosecuted in the attack, many of whom have pleaded guilty and said they regretted their actions on Jan. 6.
Capitol Police officers who were defending against the mob have testified to their harrowing experiences one said she was slipping in other peoples blood, while another told of being crushed in the mob as they worked and ultimately failed to block the rioters from storming the Capitol.
Among those who died in the riot and its aftermath were Trump supporter Ashli Babbit who was shot by police and Capitol Police officer Sicknick who died after fighting the mob.
Carlson aired footage of Sicknick inside the Capitol picking up posters and politely ushering protesters out the door, portraying that as evidence the officer was not killed in the crush.
That last was denounced by Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger as the most disturbing accusation from last night.
The Department maintains, as anyone with common sense would, that had Officer Sicknick not fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted, Officer Sicknick would not have died the next day, Chief Manger said in a memo to his police force.
He said the program cherry-picked from calmer moments of the day, ignoring the chaos and violence that happened before or during.
The Sicknick family said in a statement that the footage simply showed that Brian Sicknick bravely resumed his duties for a time after he had been attacked by a chemical agent.
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Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 7:07 pm