Topline
Hard-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson fired back Tuesday at a series of Republican senators who criticized his misleading release of January 6 video footage downplaying the severity of the riot, saying on his show that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others somehow “outed themselves” as being secretly aligned with Democrats given their outrage toward him.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks during the National Review Institute’s Ideas Summit at the … [+]
Key Facts
Carlson specifically called out McConnell, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who labeled Carlson’s cherry-picking of videos “bulls—.”
He claimed the senators managed to “degrade themselves” by criticizing the video release, adding they were “telling such obvious lies and calling for censorship.”
Carlson faced a bipartisan wave of criticism Tuesday for the videos he played on his show Monday, which he said showed police “acted as tour guides” for rioters and suggested Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick’s death on January 7, 2021, was not connected with the riot.
Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger slammed Carlson in a letter to his police force on Tuesday for “conveniently cherry-[picking] from the calmer moments” of the riot, noting that police used “de-escalation tactics” because they were “outnumbered” by rioters and calling Carlson’s framing of Sicknick the “most disturbing accusation” of the release.
McConnell said after the letter was released: “I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol police about what happened on January 6.”
Crucial Quote
“If you want to know who’s actually aligned, despite the illusion of partisanship, we found out today,” Carlson said on his show, calling the backlash against him “hysteria” and a sign of political “panic.”
Key Background
Carlson’s show exclusively obtained 41,000 hours of January 6 riot footage from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last month, in a move that also drew bipartisan criticism given Carlson’s history of taking news out of context and putting a misleading spin on topics. The host’s controversial video release and renewed suggestion that rioters were largely “sightseers” who protested at the Capitol against the “grave betrayal of American democracy” also comes at a precarious time for Fox News, which is staring down a $1.6 billion lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems accusing it of defamation for broadcasting false conspiracy theories about voting machines. Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch said in a recent deposition that some Fox News hosts “endorsed” former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election, saying: “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight.” Fox News’ attorneys have argued the suit is meritless since the hosts were acting as journalists investigating a claim from the president of the United States. Text messages made public in a Dominion court filing last month appeared to show Carlson and other prominent hosts privately scoffing at Trump’s fraud claims, with Carlson calling then-Trump attorney Sidney Powell “shockingly reckless” for arguing that Dominion machines were somehow rigged against Trump.
Contra
Trump called the release of the video footage vindication for jailed January 6 rioters, saying on Truth Social they should be released based on the “IRREFUTABLE” video.
Further Reading
Speaker McCarthy Gives Tucker Carlson 41,000 Hours Of Jan. 6 Footage (Forbes)
Murdoch Admits Fox News Hosts Pushed False Election Fraud Claims (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/03/07/tucker-carlson-blasts-mcconnell-and-gop-senators-for-criticizing-jan-6-tapes-illusion-of-partisanship/