US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy broke his silence, defending his controversial decision after he was slammed for giving about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage to Fox News’ host Tucker Carlson.
In an exclusive report published by Axios on February 20, it was revealed that McCarthy gave Carlson access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from January 6, 2021 which sparked outrage among other media outlets and the Democrats.
Amid the backlash, Carlson released a statement, defending McCarthy, saying that he didn’t see any didn’t see any “legitimate reason” for the tapes to be kept secret and asked why any “honest person” would be upset about the footage’s release.
Axios also revealed that Carlson and the house speaker started talking about the release of the complete footage in early February and that although the public has already seen some of the surveillance videos, they were nowhere close to the whole treasure trove.
Tucker Carlson now has 41,000 hours of January 6 footage that Pelosi held for over two years.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 20, 2023
Thank you @SpeakerMcCarthy for following through on this!
The public deserves to see everything that was hidden.
Carlson’s statement wasn’t enough to convince the press that McCarthy released a statement on February 22, claiming that he “promised” Carlson exclusive rights to the security footage. However, he didn’t mention the reason why he chose Fox News network and not any others.
According to McCarthy, the tapes “belong to the American public,” adding that showing them to the public will allow them to “make their own judgment” about what really took place that day.
McCarthy’s statement comes as Democrats who were largely upset about McCarthy’s decision, blasted the latter for releasing the entire cache of footage to the media.
The Democrats argued that releasing all the videos will expose too much about the inner workings of the Capitol complex, claiming that revealing them could pose an unnecessary security risk.
For instance, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote a letter, slamming the decision, arguing that the “transfer of video footage” was endangering the Capitol police and is an “egregious security breach.”
In addition, the office of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also claimed that McCarthy’s move was “dangerous and irresponsible,” arguing that the latter has put everyone who works in and around the Capitol at risk.
However, not everyone is upset about the release such as Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) who acknowledged McCarthy’s decision.
In a Twitter post, Boebert thanked the House speaker for sharing the tapes, claiming that the “public deserves” to have everything laid out in plain view.
“Tucker Carlson now has 41,000 hours of January 6 footage that Pelosi held for over two years. Thank you @SpeakerMcCarthy for following through on this! The public deserves to see everything that was hidden,” Boebert said.
