US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the move by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to turn over thousands of hours of video footage from the January 6 insurrection to right-wing network Fox News. Schumer said McCarthy only fueled conspiracy theories that the network sought to portray the incident as peaceful.
In a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Schumer condemned the broadcast of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, to whom McCarthy turned the footage over, who sought to portray the January 6 insurrection as a peaceful demonstration. Schumer also called on the network to cancel any follow-up segment, saying Carlson’s actions were “a dangerous, unforgivable attempt to destabilize our democracy and rewrite the history of the worst attack on our Constitution since the Civil War.”
Schumer ripped into the Republican House Speaker, saying that McCarthy is “as culpable as Mr. Carlson” for providing the footage.
“To say January 6 was not violent is a lie, pure and simple,” said Schumer, who later tweeted that he was invited to Carlson’s show. The Senate Democratic leader said he would only agree to appear if Carlson admitted to lying to his viewers.
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters he agreed with the criticism of the Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger on Carlson’s commentary on January 6. Manger’s criticisms were outlined in an internal memo, which said Carlson’s broadcast of the footage was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions about the Jan. 6 attack.”
The Fox News report, Manger said, “cherry-picked from the calmer moments” of January 6 and failed to show the “chaos and violence” that ensued when a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump broke into the Capitol to derail the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
Biden also responded to the report on Twitter, reiterating that over 140 police officers were injured on January 6 and reiterating his support for the Capitol Police.
“More than 140 officers were injured on Jan. 6,” Biden tweeted. “I’ve said before: How dare anyone diminish or deny the hell they went through?”
“I hope House Republicans feel ashamed for what was done to undermine our law enforcement,” added Biden.