Tucker Carlson on Monday aired U.S. Capitol security footage from the Jan. 6 insurrection that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave to him last month, at one point showing tape of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) fleeing from rioters.
Yet the clip, which the House Jan. 6 Committee first revealed to the public last July, is “a lie,” according to the Fox News host, because Hawley wasn’t the only member of Congress seen running toward a safe location.
Carlson, in a voiceover, complained that “Democrats laughed with derision” when the committee showed the clip.
“But in fact, the surveillance footage shows that famous clip was a sham, edited deceptively by the January 6 Committee. The clip was propaganda, not evidence,” Carlson insisted. “The actual videotape shows that Hawley was one of many lawmakers being ushered out of the building by Capitol Hill police officers. And, in fact, Hawley was at the back of the pack. The ‘coward’ tape was a lie — one of many from the Jan. 6 Committee.”
It’s unclear how exactly other lawmakers fleeing ahead of Hawley makes the video of him doing so a “lie.” Nevertheless, former President Donald Trump agreed with Carlson’s sentiment, demanding the prosecutions of committee members in a Truth Social post.
Trump also commended McCarthy for showing “great courage” in handing over the footage to Tucker Carlson Tonight, a decision that was criticized by Democrats and liberal commentators but also figures like election denialist Mike Lindell, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and Newsmax host Eric Bolling. McCarthy defended it, noting that Carlson had “been asking for it.”
Additional footage from Jan. 6 will be broadcast Tuesday, said Carlson, who has routinely tried to whitewash the events of that day. The primetime Fox host has defended a rioter charged with sedition as a “thoroughly loyal American,” promoted conspiracies in his docuseries about the day, had a fit when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) described Jan. 6 as a “terrorist attack,” falsely claimed that the shooting of rioter Ashli Babbitt wasn’t investigated, and praised McCarthy for opposing the formation of the Jan. 6 Committee back in 2021.
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