Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired newly released footage on his show Monday from the January 6, 2021 US Capitol protests popularly known as an attack or insurrection by Trump protesters, showing cops escorting protestors to the Senate floor. The new footage included images of a protester known as the “QAnon Shaman,” as well as of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of a heart attack following the attack.
Jacob Chansley aka QAnon Shaman, the spear-carrying ‘rioter’ who has come to represent the Jan 6 incident and has been sentenced to 41 months in prison, in the newly revealed surveillance footage is seen being escorted by two Capitol Police officers to the very door of the US Senate. “ To this day there is no clarity on how Chansley got inside the Capitol. The tapes show the Capitol Police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides,” says Carlson.
The footage shows Chansley wandering into the corridors of the Capitol, bare-chested and wearing face paint and an ostentatious fur hat with Viking horns, while being guided by the cops.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy granted Carlson access to more than 40,000 hours of the Capitol security footage from January 6.
Before sharing the footage Carlson in a detailed monologue says that the footage counters the narrative that the January 6 event was an attempt to take over Capitol Hill – the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government and that it was an insurrection led by Donald Trump. He also claimed that the committee appointed to investigate the January 6 events have access to the footage but they hid it from the public eye to mislead people.
“To prove that claim and to divert attention from the details of the presidential elections itself, Democrats in the House made the House select committee on the January 6 attack. The point of that committee was to prevent Donald Trump from running for President again. In December last year, many voted unanimously to refer Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. Mission accomplished. But what the committee did not do was explain what happened inside the Capitol on January 6.
Virtually no one in Washington, Republican or Democrat, wanted to see this tape released tonight. pic.twitter.com/YfpvaIZTbn
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 7, 2023
Thanking McCarthy for granting Fox News permission to view the footage, Carlson said, “Three weeks ago, thanks to the New Republican speaker’s office we gained access to 40,000 hours of footage to help answer that question. The January 6 committee had access to this very same tape and watched much of it. But what we are about to show you is that committee members lied about what they saw and then hid the evidence from the public and from January 6 criminal defendants and their lawyer.”
The footage does not show a riot or an insurrection as is made out to be the case. Instead, it shows policemen escorting protesters from the building including the now infamous QAnon Shaman, said Carlson.
The Fox News report has invited sharp reactions from Democrats. United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for supporting Fox News’ attempt to play down the seriousness of the Capitol attack that took place on January 6, 2021.
“More than 140 officers were injured on Jan 6. I’ve said before: How dare anyone diminish or deny the hell they went through?” tweeted Biden. “I hope House Republicans feel ashamed for what was done to undermine our law enforcement,” he said.