Fox News host Tucker Carlson, after being granted exclusive access by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to more than 40,000 hours of unseen surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot of 2021, began to air some of that video on Monday.
Democrats, their media allies, and even some Republicans were outraged, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) even demanded that Fox News remove Carlson from the broadcast to prevent additional footage from being shown, the Daily Caller reported.
Schumer calls for Fox News to keep Carlson off air
While addressing reporters Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Schumer conflated the Capitol riot with the 2020 election results controversy and warned that the “lies” from Carlson would continue that evening, and then called directly upon News Corp. CEO and Chairman Rupert Murdoch to take action against his highest-rated and most popular primetime Fox News host.
“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’s seen how he has perverted and slimed the truth, and from letting him go on again and again and again,” Schumer said.
The top Democrat in the Senate added, “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
Fiery floor speech from Schumer
Just prior to those remarks, according to Breitbart, Sen. Schumer had furiously denounced both Tucker Carlson and Speaker McCarthy during a speech on the Senate floor.
“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,” the senator said of the Fox News host.
“And he’s going to come back tonight with another segment,” Schumer added. “Fox News should tell him not to. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, tell Carlson not to run a second segment of lies.”
‘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
McCarthy says Americans can draw “their own conclusion”
As for Speaker McCarthy, Sen. Schumer in that speech also decried the “disaster” decision to allow Carlson access to the footage, proclaimed him to be “every bit as culpable” as Carlson for what was aired, and asserted that this was both “shameful” and a “low point” for the top Republican in the House.
Yet, according to ABC News, McCarthy appeared unfazed by the outraged blowback from Democrats and Republicans alike to what he had done, and simply stated that “Each person can come up with their own conclusion” about what Carlson aired and what they believed occurred at the Capitol on that fateful day in 2021.
The outlet further reported that Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger denounced Carlson’s video clips on Monday as “cherry-picked,” “misleading,” and “offensive” — a sentiment similarly expressed by other critics of what Carlson revealed.
However, those same terms can be readily flipped back on the Democrat-dominated committee that investigated the Capitol riot and only showed carefully selected clips that supported their pre-set narratives and conclusions while keeping everything else hidden from the public for two years.
