House Democrats plan to meet and talk about Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) decision to grant Fox News host Tucker Carlson access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage captured on Jan. 6, 2021.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) drafted a letter to Democratic colleagues on Tuesday indicating his team is “working to confirm the precise nature of the video transfer,” referring to it as a “reported breach” that could possibly jeopardize national security.
Hakeem Jeffries writes in a Dear Colleague to Dems: "The apparent transfer of video footage represents an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol Police, who valiantly defended our democracy with their lives at risk" https://t.co/HGXeQN1TBq pic.twitter.com/iHWA28jjKs
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) February 21, 2023
Jeffries indicated that Democrat members will have a digital meeting on Feb. 22, featuring presentations led by House Administration Committee ranking member Joe Morelle (D-NY) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who helped lead the now-declining January 6 Committee.
The news of McCarthy sharing the approximately 41,000 hours of footage captured on Jan. 6, 2021, was first reported by Axios.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson later announced on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that his producers had been offered what they considered to be “unfettered” access to the tapes, with drops planned over the next week.
“Some of our smartest producers have been there looking at this stuff, trying to figure out what it means and how it contradicts, or not, the story that we’ve been told for more than two years,” Carlson stated on his primetime show, “We think already that in some ways it does contradict that story.”
Tucker Carlson Announces That His Show Has Been Granted Access To 44k Hours Of Footage From January 6th
"We believe that access is unfettered. We believe we have secured the right to see whatever we want to see."
"We're going to spend the rest of this week taking a look at it,… https://t.co/sK7691S0n8 pic.twitter.com/GnPvtbENg5
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) February 21, 2023
A spokesperson representing Fox News reportedly told The Daily Wire that Axios’ piece was accurate.
This news of a Democrat meeting comes after some leftists expressed anger at the prospect of Tucker Carlson or the American public seeing more footage of what transpired in the U.S. Capitol on that fateful day. One was Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who vented his complaints on social media.
“Kevin McCarthy turned over Jan 6 videos to right-wing propagandist Tucker Carlson,” the California congressman complained on Monday. “A man who spews Kremlin talking points. Suggests Jan 6 was a false flag. And spreads the Big Lie. Make no mistake: This isn’t about transparency, it’s about fueling dangerous conspiracy theories.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, (R-GA), who received a fair amount of criticism from some over her support of House Speaker McCarthy’s recent election bid, posted online that she is “very happy to be right again” for her decision to back his run.
For all of you that doubted we would release the tapes.
Here you go!
I’m very happy to be right again in my support for Kevin McCarthy as our Speaker.
Americans deserve to see the truth, not a one sided narrative and unfair two tiered justice system.https://t.co/EkVvbTwxcP
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 20, 2023
