How The Intra-GOP War Over Jan. 6. Breaks Down

Topline

The top two GOP leaders in Congress have found themselves on opposing sides of the debate over Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s downplaying of the January 6 Capitol riots—underscoring the divide between establishment stalwarts who have distanced themselves from former President Donald Trump and those who remain committed to him and his fraudulent claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Washington, DC, on … [+] May 12, 2021. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

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Key Facts

The intra-party feud exploded following Carlson’s airing of January 6 security footage on Monday in a segment where he sought to soften the seriousness of the insurrection and cast doubt on its ties to Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick’s death.

Republican senators were outspoken about their disdain for Carlson’s narrative the following day on the Hill—Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said equating the insurrection to a protest is “just a lie,” while Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called Carlson’s framing “bulls—t.”

GOP Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), John Kennedy (La.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Mike Rounds (S.D.), also criticized the program on Tuesday.

The backlash then stretched to the top of the ranks of the Republican party when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sided with a damning letter from Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger ripping into Carlson’s highly sanitized version of the riot, which was connected to at least seven deaths and the injuries of 114 officers.

The senators’ disapproval puts them firmly at odds with the Trump-aligned faction of the party who demanded the tapes be released to Carlson as part of a deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in exchange for their votes in his speakership election.

In the wake of the criticism from his Senate colleagues, McCarthy defended his release of the tapes, telling reporters he does not regret the decision and did not watch Monday’s segment.

He also went to bat with McConnell and called on him to denounce CNN for airing January 6 security footage (though McConnell’s criticism was based on Carlson’s depiction of the tapes, rather than their release in general).

Key Background

Carlson aired parts of the 41,000 hours of footage McCarthy handed him last month in segments on Monday and Tuesday, claiming the footage “proves it was neither an insurrection nor deadly.” He also devoted a portion of Monday’s program to disputing the link between the riot and Sicknick’s death (Sicknick suffered two strokes and died a day later). In Tuesday’s segment, Carlson claimed his Senate critics managed to “degrade themselves” by condemning the videos’ release, adding they were “telling such obvious lies and calling for censorship.” Privately, Carlson has allegedly called Trump’s election fraud claims “absurd” and “insane” and said he “passionately” hates Trump, according to court papers filed by Dominion Voting Systems in its billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News over the network’s voter fraud claims.

Tangent

McConnell and McCarthy—who Trump once fondly referred to as “My Kevin”—have long been divided in their characterizations of Trump’s role in the January 6 Capitol riots. McCarthy, knowing that his speaker aspirations required the support of Trump’s backers in Congress, backtracked on his initial criticism of the former president following the riot, opposed his impeachment and led the effort to remove Trump critic former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as GOP conference chair in retaliation for her rebuke of Trump. McConnell, meanwhile, placed blame on Trump in the wake of the riots. “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people,” he said in a speech on the Senate floor. McConnell was also among a coalition of Republicans who attributed losses of the party’s candidates in the 2022 midterm election to Trump and said the outcome shows Trump’s “political clout has diminished.”

Crucial Quote

Trump said on Truth Social that McCarthy showed “great courage” by releasing the footage to Carlson and accused former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) and McConnell of being “a disaster on security” that day. “A whole new, and completely opposite, picture has now been indelibly painted,” Trump wrote.

Chief Critic

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on McCarthy to denounce Carlson’s depiction of the tapes in a floor speech on Wednesday, accusing the speaker of doing “more than any party leader in Congress to enable the spread of Donald Trump’s big lie.”