Fox News host Tucker Carlson began to air on his program this week previously unreleased surveillance camera footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot of 2021 after he was granted exclusive access to review tens of thousands of hours of unseen footage by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
Carlson was viciously attacked for doing so by Democrats, the media, and even some Republicans, as the footage he showed substantially undermined the carefully crafted narratives and pre-established conclusions of what actually occurred during that incident at the Capitol, Breitbart reported.
Schumer attacks Carlson
Chief among those to verbally assault Tucker Carlson was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to denounce the Fox News host, accusing him of lying to the American people and of jeopardizing the nation’s democracy.
“I and so many others who were here are just furious with Tucker Carson,” Schumer said. “With disregard of the risks and knowing full well he was lying, lying to his audience, Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a lengthy segment last night, arguing the January 6 Capitol attack was not a violent insurrection.”
“To say January 6 was not violent is a lie, a lie pure and simple,” he continued. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a prime-time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain.”
“And he’s going to come back tonight with another segment,” Schumer cautioned. “Fox News should tell him not to. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, tell Carlson not to run a second segment of lies.”
The top Senate Democrat also excoriated Speaker McCarthy for allowing Carlson access to the trove of previously hidden away footage and called him both “shameful” and “culpable” for doing so.
‘Speaker McCarthy is every bit as culpable as Mr. Carlson.’
Sen. Chuck Schumer criticized Speaker Kevin McCarthy for ‘catering to the hard right’ after McCarthy granted Fox News’ Tucker Carlson access to Capitol security footage, who then downplayed the violence on Jan 6. pic.twitter.com/kK1YtdQ5M1
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 7, 2023
Schumer calls on Fox News to censor Carlson
After his floor speech, Sen. Schumer then addressed reporters and issued a direct message to News Corp. CEO and Chairman Rupert Murdoch to demand that he censor and silence the Fox News host — but in doing so he conflated the Jan. 6 footage with claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, as he had also done in the earlier floor speech.
“These lies continue tonight. Rupert Murdoch, who has admitted they were lies and said he regretted it, has a special obligation to stop Tucker Carlson from going on tonight, now that he has seen how he has perverted and slimed the truth, and from letting him go on again and again and again,” Schumer said. “Not because their views deserve such opprobrium, but because our democracy depends on it.”
Schumer: “Rupert Murdoch has a special obligation to stop Tucker Carlson from going on tonight [and] from letting him go on again and again and again [because] our democracy depends on it.” pic.twitter.com/uld6eaCl3C
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 7, 2023
McCarthy finally speaks out
As for Speaker McCarthy and the criticism he has received from Schumer and others about allowing Carlson access to more than 40,000 hours of previously unseen footage, Breitbart reported separately that he fully intends to release as much of the footage as possible to the American people in the interest of “transparency,” and acknowledged that Carlson was only to first to be granted access to the videos.
McCarthy also ripped the now-defunct House January 6 Committee for its overt partisanship and own selective releases of clips of the footage that only serviced their pre-set narratives. He also slammed Schumer for his censorious remarks aimed at silencing Carlson.
“I wish Chuck Schumer would read the Constitution,” McCarthy said. “The Democrats always go to censorship. You watched what they did with the laptop. You watched what they did with Twitter. They want to use government as much as they can to censor what people can see and what people can know. This is the difference between us. I believe in the Constitution. I trust the American people, and you should just have the ability to have all the information and let people make their own judgment.”
