Democrats have been running around like decapitated chickens ever since news broke that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Tucker Carlson unfettered access to surveillance footage from inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6. 2021 riot by Trump supporters.
The Fox News host will air five stories culled from the footage Monday and Tuesday nights, countering the overblown “insurrection” narrative the Democrats and their media toadies have been pushing since Day One.
The characterization of conservative Republicans as an “ultra-MAGA semi-fascist” menace to democracy was pushed by the partisan J6 committee and was the Democrats’ main sales pitch at the midterms last year.
Dems don’t have much else to run within 2024, so Carlson’s fact-finding mission is an existential threat to their electoral prospects.
That’s why they are hyperbolically accusing McCarthy of endangering the security of the House and handing the tools for “the next insurrection” to Carlson who, it won’t surprise you to learn, they fantasize is a Russian sleeper agent.
Emotional editing
But when you see what Carlson’s team has put together over the past two weeks of combing through thousands of hours of video, you will be struck by how different the reality was inside the building that day compared to the J6 committee’s deceptively edited prime-time dramas, produced by a former ABC News president for maximum emotional impact.
For instance, Carlson’s team says the J6 committee added audio to silent CCTV footage, inserting screams and other crowd mayhem sounds, to make it seem more ominous. The bookmarks on the video trove show the J6 committee had access to the same footage yet chose to show America only what suited its divisive narrative.
There’s no sugarcoating what happened that day; J6 was shocking and violent in parts. It remains a stain on the nation, but it was not an “insurrection” or a “terrorist” attack.
It was not the “greatest threat” to American democracy since the Civil War, as Joe Biden claims. It was not worse than 9/11. The only people who died that day were Trump supporters.
Despite the biggest investigation in FBI history — overkill for sure — no one has been charged with “insurrection” and there is no evidence of any organized plot to overturn the presidential election result. Proceedings resumed a few hours late and Biden’s victory was certified.
It was an ugly explosion of mob anger, but it lasted mere hours, compared to the months of deadly mayhem that engulfed the country before the 2020 election.
Yet the American public has been subjected to a campaign of lies about J6 with cherry-picked video played on a loop for over two years of violent Trump supporters smashing windows.
We have been told the lie that police officers were killed when not a single one was. Brian Sicknick died the next day of a stroke.
It has been a non-stop, one-sided propaganda campaign while Democrats dominated every lever of power in Washington.
But now the GOP controls the House, it’s time for transparency, and that is what McCarthy has delivered.
Carlson will show the counter-narrative so that the American public gets a more balanced idea of what happened that day.
He will demonstrate that the J6 committee twisted everything.
He will show hundreds of peaceful people inside the Capitol behaving like tourists, queuing politely, walking within the rope lines, taking selfies, and stopping to pick up an overturned bollard, all while police look on.
Most strikingly, you will see for the first time the truth about the so-called Qanon Shaman, Jacob Chansley.
This is the guy with the horns and face paint who became the poster child of J6 villainy, and yet when you watch his journey through the Capitol you will be shocked that he is serving 3.5 years in jail for “obstructing an official proceeding.”
How many other harmless Americans were sacrificed to a federal justice system perverted for the cause of a political lie?
Now it’s a security risk?
That’s why Democrats are so frightened. Their edifice of lies is about to tumble and all they have left is to throw mud in the hope half the country will stay in the dark. Defaming Carlson is their favorite tactic.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told MSNBC’s Joy Reid that it was a “serious security risk” to give the tapes to Carlson because he is “pro-Putin . . . that really is out of Putin’s playbook.”
As usual, Raskin’s Russia collusion allusions make no sense but he seems to be saying that Vladimir Putin will somehow watch Carlson’s program and learn how to attack the Capitol. “The reason all of [the footage] wasn’t released is precisely because floor design, it lays out evacuation routes, it lays out where the vice president went, it lays out where the senior members of Congress were evacuated,” said Raskin.
What a joke.
Firstly, Carlson’s team has been meticulous about anticipating security concerns and the footage they use will be vetted by the House before it airs.
Secondly, the J6 committee showed endless footage of then-VP Mike Pence and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley being evacuated, plus scenes from inside McCarthy’s office as his staffers prepared to flee. No security concerns there?
Thirdly, Nancy Pelosi’s filmmaker daughter appears to have been given access to the footage to make a documentary.
Carlson’s program has been far more responsible and prudent.
