House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Fox News host Tucker Carlson access to hours of surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Carlson was granted access to some 41,000 hours of footage by McCarthy’s office, according to Axios.
McCarthy has long called for the release of the Jan. 6 footage and accused Democrats of politicizing the process.
“I think the public should see what has happened on that,” McCarthy told reporters at a press conference last month. “We watched the politicization of this. I think the American public should actually see all what happened instead of a report that’s written for a political basis.”
In a statement to Axios, Carlson said that was “no legitimate” reason to not release the footage.
“If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6,” he said. “By definition, this video will reveal it. It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that.”
But, Carlson has downplayed the insurrection as “vandalism” and there are concerns that he may manipulate the footage to fit his narrative.
In 2021 he produced a documentary called “Patriot Purge,” which suggests the Jan. 6 insurrection may have been a “false flag” operation.
