McCarthy vows to give Jan. 6 footage to more outlets, defends Fox News coverage
Ryan King
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stood by his decision to release Jan. 6 security footage to Fox News and accused the House select committee investigating the matter of being dishonest with the public.
Reiterating his prior defense, McCarthy argued that he gave access to the footage in the name of transparency and is gearing up to grant additional media outlets access to the tranche of footage as well.
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“We will slowly roll out to every individual news agency. They can come see the tapes as well,” McCarthy said in an interview with Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “Let everyone see them to bring their own judgment.”
During his long-winded battle for the speaker’s gavel, Fox News host Tucker Carlon publicly urged McCarthy to release all the Jan. 6 footage and documents. After McCarthy’s ascension to the speakership was cemented, he allowed only Carlson’s team access to the trove of footage.
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Carlson ran multiple segments on his findings, which raised questions about police officer Brian Sicknick’s condition and whether officers escorted the so-called QAnon Shaman Jacob Chansley around the Capitol.
“My goal here is transparency,” McCarthy stressed. “The first thing I found is that the January 6 committee was not honest with us. That it’s not 14,000 hours of tapes, there’s 41,000 hours of tapes.”
A chorus of Democrats and Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), publicly seethed at Carlson’s depiction of the events, contending he downplayed the violence that unfolded during the storming of the Capitol.
“They’re not destroying the Capitol,” Carlson said at one point during his broadcast. “They obviously revere the Capitol.”
Over 986 people have been charged with crimes pertaining to the Jan. 6 ransacking of the Capitol, according to the Associated Press. Special Counsel Jack Smith is spearheading the Justice Department’s investigation revolving around the riot and coinciding efforts to thwart the 2020 election.
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McCarthy also juxtaposed the federal response to the Jan. 6 rioters with the response to the rioters during the summer of 2020, that smashed windows and lit buildings on fire during national outrage over the death of George Floyd and a reckoning over racial injustice.
“But one thing I understand in America, we should have equal justice,” McCarthy added. “What really raises the point with me is, why did I watch federal courts, why did I watch cities burn, federal agencies or something, and nobody arrested there? I think we should have equal justice across this country.”