J6
- Thread starter sdkid
- Start date
bigredfish
Known around here
Why Are They Afraid? Is The Release Of Suppressed J6 Footage Really A "Threat To Our Democracy"?
Why Are They Afraid? Is The Release Of Suppressed J6 Footage Really A "Threat To Our Democracy"? | ZeroHedge
The release of over 40,000 hours of January 6th security footage by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to Tucker Carlson of Fox News has sparked an immediate backlash from Democrats who claim Carlson is exploiting the footage to misrepresent the event. Say what you want about Fox News, but Carlson as an individual has shown consistency in his reporting and an effort to get beyond the mere surface of events. The assertion that Carlson is misrepresenting J6 footage remains unfounded.
Leftists were not able to describe how, exactly, surveillance footage from the capitol is rigged to depict events that did not happen, but their reactionary behavior indicates a number of inconvenient truths:
First, leftists went on the attack before the footage was ever received by Tucker Carlson. They didn't want him to have it. The Democrats at least believed that unreleased footage might show evidence contrary to their carefully crafted narrative of an “insurrection.” Or, they knew that it would debunk their narrative. Either way, they preemptively accused Carlson of mishandling the footage as it was made available to him. If the public can be convinced that certain information is a lie before they ever see the information, then the release of those facts becomes irrelevant. The populace has been strategically infected with bias, so they will not see what is right in front of their eyes.
Second, Democrats and some GOP NeoCons have shown once again that they think the public should not be allowed to determine the meaning of data and evidence for themselves. In fact, one might suspect that establishment elites have something to hide as they rage indignantly about the mere release of video surveillance. Why are they so opposed to the public viewing the information unless that information threatens to expose establishment lies?
Third, much like the release of the Twitter Files, it is actually a majority of the corporate media that is seeking to misrepresent the evidence being revealed as rigged, incomplete or not important. Their goal is to suppress new information, and if they can't do that they will try to undermine it by sowing false seeds of doubt.
Numerous Democrat leaders and some NeoCon politicians, without taking time to acknowledge the implications of the surveillance being presented by Tucker Carlson, have immediately denounced the footage as “lies” and “sleight of hand.” Senator Chuck Schumer was quick to go on the attack, calling Carlson's recent segment on J6 a “perversion” of the truth. Not only that, but Schumer openly called for Rupert Murdoch to stop Carlson and remove him.
Why? Because “our democracy depends on” the censorship of such materials.
NeoCon Mitch McConnell went even further, stating:
"It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that's completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks.”
In other words, the mainstream news should be taking its cues from government officials and repeating exactly what THEY say, rather than reporting on the evidence as it exists. In their view, the narrative of the government supersedes the determinations of the public.
This is the exact sentiment that was expressed by U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who argued that Carlson's conclusions were “offensive and misleading.” Manger claimed that:
"TV commentary will not record the truth for our history books...The justice system will. The truth and justice are on our side."
Again, they believe that they write the truth. They write history, and history is whatever they say it is. The J6 Committee had one job, which was to perpetuate the historical narrative of an insurrection by conservatives on the steps of the Capitol Building. They were not interested in the truth, which is why over 40,000 hours of surveillance footage was never released to the public. They showed us what they wanted us to see, not the full reality.
Beyond the numerous videos showing police opening the doors and inviting protesters inside (which the media continues to lie about), there is also the question of intent which the J6 Committee was never able to prove.
The FBI found no evidence that the Trump Administration had anything to do with the Capitol protesters and scant evidence of any form of organization or coordination that would be required for an insurrection. Where were the plans for takeover? Who intended to run the government after the supposed coup? Where was the army that was going to secure the capitol after the insurrection's success? None of these things existed.
In fact, none of the protesters on J6 were even armed and the only person killed when the protests turned violent was Ashli Babbitt, a protester. It's pretty difficult to pull off an insurrection without weapons, without organization and without a plan. In other words, there was no insurrection. The claim is an erroneous lie, and always has been. The establishment has tried to reinvent a protest that turned aggressive into an act of war against “democracy” itself.
Tucker Carlson's footage shows what most of us already knew – That the media and elements of the government have completely overblown the events of January 6th for political gain The footage also reconfirms that no police were killed by protesters, and yet the media continue to perpetuate that disinformation. It is likely that Carlson will be releasing new footage for many months to come which runs contrary to the official version of events, which is why Democrats are calling for him to be taken off the air.
There is far more proven organization during the BLM and Antifa riots across the US for the past few years. Just this week Antifa engaged in a highly organized direct attack on a police training center site near Atlanta, Georgia. But the media doesn't want to talk about that, or how leftist groups represent a danger to our constitutional freedoms. And it is this double standard that is only making half the country more inclined to not care about such notions.
If our system is so corrupt that the release of hard video evidence “threatens our democracy,” then maybe our democracy isn't worth saving.
Why Are They Afraid? Is The Release Of Suppressed J6 Footage Really A "Threat To Our Democracy"? | ZeroHedge
The release of over 40,000 hours of January 6th security footage by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to Tucker Carlson of Fox News has sparked an immediate backlash from Democrats who claim Carlson is exploiting the footage to misrepresent the event. Say what you want about Fox News, but Carlson as an individual has shown consistency in his reporting and an effort to get beyond the mere surface of events. The assertion that Carlson is misrepresenting J6 footage remains unfounded.
Leftists were not able to describe how, exactly, surveillance footage from the capitol is rigged to depict events that did not happen, but their reactionary behavior indicates a number of inconvenient truths:
First, leftists went on the attack before the footage was ever received by Tucker Carlson. They didn't want him to have it. The Democrats at least believed that unreleased footage might show evidence contrary to their carefully crafted narrative of an “insurrection.” Or, they knew that it would debunk their narrative. Either way, they preemptively accused Carlson of mishandling the footage as it was made available to him. If the public can be convinced that certain information is a lie before they ever see the information, then the release of those facts becomes irrelevant. The populace has been strategically infected with bias, so they will not see what is right in front of their eyes.
Second, Democrats and some GOP NeoCons have shown once again that they think the public should not be allowed to determine the meaning of data and evidence for themselves. In fact, one might suspect that establishment elites have something to hide as they rage indignantly about the mere release of video surveillance. Why are they so opposed to the public viewing the information unless that information threatens to expose establishment lies?
Third, much like the release of the Twitter Files, it is actually a majority of the corporate media that is seeking to misrepresent the evidence being revealed as rigged, incomplete or not important. Their goal is to suppress new information, and if they can't do that they will try to undermine it by sowing false seeds of doubt.
Numerous Democrat leaders and some NeoCon politicians, without taking time to acknowledge the implications of the surveillance being presented by Tucker Carlson, have immediately denounced the footage as “lies” and “sleight of hand.” Senator Chuck Schumer was quick to go on the attack, calling Carlson's recent segment on J6 a “perversion” of the truth. Not only that, but Schumer openly called for Rupert Murdoch to stop Carlson and remove him.
Why? Because “our democracy depends on” the censorship of such materials.
NeoCon Mitch McConnell went even further, stating:
"It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that's completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks.”
In other words, the mainstream news should be taking its cues from government officials and repeating exactly what THEY say, rather than reporting on the evidence as it exists. In their view, the narrative of the government supersedes the determinations of the public.
This is the exact sentiment that was expressed by U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who argued that Carlson's conclusions were “offensive and misleading.” Manger claimed that:
"TV commentary will not record the truth for our history books...The justice system will. The truth and justice are on our side."
Again, they believe that they write the truth. They write history, and history is whatever they say it is. The J6 Committee had one job, which was to perpetuate the historical narrative of an insurrection by conservatives on the steps of the Capitol Building. They were not interested in the truth, which is why over 40,000 hours of surveillance footage was never released to the public. They showed us what they wanted us to see, not the full reality.
Beyond the numerous videos showing police opening the doors and inviting protesters inside (which the media continues to lie about), there is also the question of intent which the J6 Committee was never able to prove.
The FBI found no evidence that the Trump Administration had anything to do with the Capitol protesters and scant evidence of any form of organization or coordination that would be required for an insurrection. Where were the plans for takeover? Who intended to run the government after the supposed coup? Where was the army that was going to secure the capitol after the insurrection's success? None of these things existed.
In fact, none of the protesters on J6 were even armed and the only person killed when the protests turned violent was Ashli Babbitt, a protester. It's pretty difficult to pull off an insurrection without weapons, without organization and without a plan. In other words, there was no insurrection. The claim is an erroneous lie, and always has been. The establishment has tried to reinvent a protest that turned aggressive into an act of war against “democracy” itself.
Tucker Carlson's footage shows what most of us already knew – That the media and elements of the government have completely overblown the events of January 6th for political gain The footage also reconfirms that no police were killed by protesters, and yet the media continue to perpetuate that disinformation. It is likely that Carlson will be releasing new footage for many months to come which runs contrary to the official version of events, which is why Democrats are calling for him to be taken off the air.
There is far more proven organization during the BLM and Antifa riots across the US for the past few years. Just this week Antifa engaged in a highly organized direct attack on a police training center site near Atlanta, Georgia. But the media doesn't want to talk about that, or how leftist groups represent a danger to our constitutional freedoms. And it is this double standard that is only making half the country more inclined to not care about such notions.
If our system is so corrupt that the release of hard video evidence “threatens our democracy,” then maybe our democracy isn't worth saving.
Oceanslider
Known around here
except the footage used ain't J6
Oceanslider
Known around here
You know they had to have had the video of Chansley entering the Capitol Building. Every single door in that building has multiple cameras pointed at each, on the inside as well as the outside. Where did the footage go?
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
This is a nice clip I had not seen...
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Evidently the Rumors Were Likely True: Tucker Carlson Softens J6 Reports and Releases NO NEW VIDEO After Threats from Schumer and Others | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft
What happened to Tucker Carlson’s week of January 6 Video Reporting?
www.thegatewaypundit.com
Damnit. Feels very "Deep-State" to me. Fucking Mitch is a Bitch.Evidently the Rumors Were Likely True: Tucker Carlson Softens J6 Reports and Releases NO NEW VIDEO After Threats from Schumer and Others | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft
What happened to Tucker Carlson’s week of January 6 Video Reporting?
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
9/11 First Responder NYPD Policewoman is Now a Convicted Felon for Entering Capitol & Shaking Tambourine on January 6th! FOUND GUILTY ON SEVEN COUNTS BY D.C. Jury! ROSARY BEADS WERE CONFISCATED AS EVIDENCE! | The Gateway Pundit | by Cara Castronuova
Heroic 9/11 First Responder, policewoman and former spokeswoman for the NYPD is now a convicted felon for walking into the Capitol and shaking a tambourine.
www.thegatewaypundit.com
bigredfish
Known around here
Disgusting
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
Jan 6th Song Featuring President Trump and J6 Political Prisoners Soars To #1 On iTunes | The Gateway Pundit | by ProTrumpNews Staff
Donald Trump was featured in a song by the J6 Prison Choir called “Justice For All.” It soared to the top of iTunes.
www.thegatewaypundit.com
Ssayer
BIT Beta Team
bigredfish
Known around here
Tucker Carlson Unbound: Setting Fire To The Uniparty
Tucker Carlson Unbound: Setting Fire To The Uniparty | ZeroHedge
Authored by Frank Miele via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
In my last column, I compared Fox News host Tucker Carlson to the CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow, who used his reporting in the 1950s to change the course of history.
For that comparison I apologize.
It is now apparent that Carlson far exceeds Murrow in his courage, his thoughtfulness, and his stubborn refusal to accede to pressure.
Let’s get this straight. Murrow was a brilliant journalist, but his reputation as a dedicated war correspondent during the Battle of Britain also made him a beloved figure to his fellow reporters and to the politicians whom he covered. Thus, when he stood up against the bullying tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Murrow knew he could count on the support of CBS, other journalists, and even senators who had been the target of McCarthy’s blind rage. In a very real sense, it was McCarthy’s own character flaws that brought him down, to the detriment of his anti-Communist crusade, which had accurately identified the very real threat of Soviet sympathizers who had infiltrated the federal government. Murrow was just the catalyst, and he was lauded for his efforts.
On the other hand, Tucker Carlson’s decision last week to air previously unseen video of the Jan. 6, 2021, confrontation between protesters and Capitol Police put his own career at risk and has made him the subject of bipartisan scorn. Some even speculate that he was silently punished by his bosses at Fox News, but Carlson doesn’t seem worried about being fired, and the condemnation he has received from both the majority leader and minority leader of the Senate has only emboldened him.
It will probably take years to fully understand the importance of Carlson’s challenge of the “official Washington” narrative of Jan. 6 as a “deadly insurrection,” but Carlson wasted no time last Monday in laying out the framework of his complete rejection of the “accepted truth” pushed by the Biden Department of Justice, the House Select Committee on January 6, and the mainstream media.
Only a tiny fraction of the thousands of hours of surveillance video released to Carlson by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was shown last week on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” but you only need a small pin to burst a large balloon, and by the time the week was over, all the president’s men couldn’t put the Humpty-Dumpty story of a “Trump-surrection” back together again.
“The images you will see were recorded 26 months ago today on January 6, 2021,” Carlson began. “Until now, politicians have kept this tape hidden from the public. There is no legitimate justification for that and there never has been.”
The powers that be would have you believe that Carlson had jeopardized national security by playing the tapes – probably 30 minutes out of the 41,000 hours. Now, it is true the tapes provided some interesting counterbalance to the non-stop harassment of Trump supporters that has taken place for the past two years, but if truth be told, the evidence on the tapes was much less significant than the reaction to them. What you really want to know now is, if 30 minutes of video has the Uniparty crowd so scared, what else are they hiding?
I think much more than the video, the Censorship-Industrial Complex (as journalist Matt Taibbi has accurately tabbed it) wants to shut down any information or even belief that goes counter to the official narrative, and that’s where Carlson got so deep under their skin that they were willing to rip themselves to shreds in an effort to get at him.
Everything Carlson said about Jan. 6 for three days last week was a threat to their power, and he knew it.
“The protesters were angry. They believed the election they had just voted in was unfairly conducted. They were right. In retrospect, it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy.”
He didn’t go beyond that in explaining the illegitimacy of the election, but he didn’t have to. The “it is clear” speaks volumes to those who haven’t bought into the official narrative that the 2020 election was “the most secure” in the nation’s history. Yeah, it was secure if you don’t believe the Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that election law was violated en masse in those states. It was secure if you don’t have any concern about billionaire Mark Zuckerberg spending hundreds of millions of dollars to gain access to voter rolls and ensure that likely Biden voters were goosed to get their butts out of the chair and their ballots in the drop boxes. It was secure if you don’t care about Twitter and Facebook colluding with the federal government to make sure that Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop was falsely painted as Russian disinformation in the weeks leading up to the election.
Although Democrats and the rest of “official Washington” claim the election was secure, they spent zero hours proving that case. Instead, they seized on the disruptions on Jan. 6 as the real threat to democracy and gave their clients in the lapdog media the spectacle of the select committee’s show trial. What is most hurtful to the Democrats and RINOs who wrote the narrative is that their two years of work propping up the infrastructure of a “deadly insurrection” was undone in less than 60 minutes by Carlson, who didn’t deny that violence had been done on Jan. 6, but committed the unforgivable sin of putting it in perspective.
Thus, where the Jan. 6 committee saw the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War, Tucker Carlson showed pictures of protesters walking in the door of the Capitol and milling around, as he said, like sightseers. No matter how many times Carlson said he was not excusing any violence, the proponents of the “deadly insurrection” narrative claimed that showing non-violent protesters was an affront to their efforts to demonize Trump voters as terrorists. And, of course, they were right to worry.
But it wasn’t just the images by themselves that overturned the official narrative; it was the muscular words of Carlson as he held to account not just the select committee, but also congressional leaders, Capitol Police, and the Department of Justice. This was a rarely seen J’accuse moment in which the system’s irresponsible scapegoating of the Deplorables was held up to the light.
“Committee members lied about what they saw,” Carlson said, “and then hid the evidence from the public as well as from Jan. 6 criminal defendants and their lawyers. That is unforgivable.”
The most important video came in four specific batches, each of which puts a dent in the official story. As explained by Carlson, they were as follows:
– Shots of Jacob Chansley (the QAnon Shaman) being escorted through the Capitol by a number of police and never being arrested or prevented from moving about freely. As Carlson points out, the video raises questions about whether the Department of Justice violated Chansley’s rights to a fair trial because he was denied potentially exculpatory evidence. The video plainly raises questions about whether Chansley was an intruder or a guest in the Capitol. Carlson questioned whether similar footage could have assisted many others charged with Jan. 6 crimes by showing that the “deadly insurrection” was nothing of the kind.
– Shots of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick apparently waving protesters out of the building, raising serious questions about the honesty of the many media and political figures who claimed Sicknick’s death was caused by the protesters. In the footage, Sicknick appears to be unharmed and wearing a helmet some time after he was reportedly murdered by having his head bashed in with a fire extinguisher. Sicknick died the next day as a result of a stroke caused by blood clots at the base of his brain. The medical examiner found no external or internal injuries and ruled that Sicknick died of natural causes.
– Shots of Ray Epps, the mysterious figure who urged protesters to “go IN to the Capitol” both the night before and the day of the mob scene. Epps testified before the Jan. 6 committee that he left the riot prior to texting his nephew that he had “orchestrated” the attack, but Carlson found footage of Epps a half hour later still in the middle of the mob, although suspiciously not following his own insistent advice to enter the Capitol. Carlson and others have questioned whether Epps was a federal agent or informant who was provoking the attack as part of a political scheme to create chaos. At the very least, it appears that Epps should be charged with lying to Congress, and if a serious investigation is ever done by anyone other than Tucker Carlson, we should try to find out why the man who said he “orchestrated” the Jan. 6 attack was never charged with any crime.
– Shots of Sen. Josh Hawley exiting the Capitol under the direction of the Capitol Police. In some ways, this footage is the most damning example of the purely partisan political nature of the Jan. 6 committee. Video of Hawley, who had been one of the leaders of the movement to challenge the 2020 election due to irregularities in six or more states, was shown to a national audience for comic effect as it appeared that the senator was being entirely selfish as he fled from the protesters. The effect of watching Hawley running across a Capitol hallway like a shooting gallery rabbit was so humorous that it was put on a loop for the national TV audience to get a good chuckle. Hawley was held up for ridicule by late-night comedians and cable TV “news” hosts. But when Carlson pulled the full video, he discovered that the Capitol Police had ushered dozens of senators and staff out of the building at high speed for their own protection. Hawley, as it turned out, was one of the last to leave, and not the coward he was portrayed to be. Nothing better illustrated the Jan. 6 select committee’s “narrative building” exercise than this attempt to humiliate a U.S. senator who made the mistake of “running” as a Republican.
As Carlson noted at one point, “By controlling the images you were allowed to view from January 6, they controlled how the public understood that day. They could lie about what happened and you would never know the difference. Those lies had a purpose. They created a pretext for a federal crackdown on opponents of the Uniparty in Washington.”
It is that crackdown which has occupied the Biden administration, the FBI, and much of Congress for the last two years. Can the heroic resistance of one TV journalist turn those efforts around and restore a sense of justice to the land of the free? I’ll believe it when I see it, but in the meantime it’s nice to have someone to root for.
Tucker Carlson Unbound: Setting Fire To The Uniparty | ZeroHedge
Authored by Frank Miele via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
In my last column, I compared Fox News host Tucker Carlson to the CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow, who used his reporting in the 1950s to change the course of history.
For that comparison I apologize.
It is now apparent that Carlson far exceeds Murrow in his courage, his thoughtfulness, and his stubborn refusal to accede to pressure.
Let’s get this straight. Murrow was a brilliant journalist, but his reputation as a dedicated war correspondent during the Battle of Britain also made him a beloved figure to his fellow reporters and to the politicians whom he covered. Thus, when he stood up against the bullying tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Murrow knew he could count on the support of CBS, other journalists, and even senators who had been the target of McCarthy’s blind rage. In a very real sense, it was McCarthy’s own character flaws that brought him down, to the detriment of his anti-Communist crusade, which had accurately identified the very real threat of Soviet sympathizers who had infiltrated the federal government. Murrow was just the catalyst, and he was lauded for his efforts.
On the other hand, Tucker Carlson’s decision last week to air previously unseen video of the Jan. 6, 2021, confrontation between protesters and Capitol Police put his own career at risk and has made him the subject of bipartisan scorn. Some even speculate that he was silently punished by his bosses at Fox News, but Carlson doesn’t seem worried about being fired, and the condemnation he has received from both the majority leader and minority leader of the Senate has only emboldened him.
It will probably take years to fully understand the importance of Carlson’s challenge of the “official Washington” narrative of Jan. 6 as a “deadly insurrection,” but Carlson wasted no time last Monday in laying out the framework of his complete rejection of the “accepted truth” pushed by the Biden Department of Justice, the House Select Committee on January 6, and the mainstream media.
Only a tiny fraction of the thousands of hours of surveillance video released to Carlson by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was shown last week on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” but you only need a small pin to burst a large balloon, and by the time the week was over, all the president’s men couldn’t put the Humpty-Dumpty story of a “Trump-surrection” back together again.
“The images you will see were recorded 26 months ago today on January 6, 2021,” Carlson began. “Until now, politicians have kept this tape hidden from the public. There is no legitimate justification for that and there never has been.”
The powers that be would have you believe that Carlson had jeopardized national security by playing the tapes – probably 30 minutes out of the 41,000 hours. Now, it is true the tapes provided some interesting counterbalance to the non-stop harassment of Trump supporters that has taken place for the past two years, but if truth be told, the evidence on the tapes was much less significant than the reaction to them. What you really want to know now is, if 30 minutes of video has the Uniparty crowd so scared, what else are they hiding?
I think much more than the video, the Censorship-Industrial Complex (as journalist Matt Taibbi has accurately tabbed it) wants to shut down any information or even belief that goes counter to the official narrative, and that’s where Carlson got so deep under their skin that they were willing to rip themselves to shreds in an effort to get at him.
Everything Carlson said about Jan. 6 for three days last week was a threat to their power, and he knew it.
“The protesters were angry. They believed the election they had just voted in was unfairly conducted. They were right. In retrospect, it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy.”
He didn’t go beyond that in explaining the illegitimacy of the election, but he didn’t have to. The “it is clear” speaks volumes to those who haven’t bought into the official narrative that the 2020 election was “the most secure” in the nation’s history. Yeah, it was secure if you don’t believe the Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that election law was violated en masse in those states. It was secure if you don’t have any concern about billionaire Mark Zuckerberg spending hundreds of millions of dollars to gain access to voter rolls and ensure that likely Biden voters were goosed to get their butts out of the chair and their ballots in the drop boxes. It was secure if you don’t care about Twitter and Facebook colluding with the federal government to make sure that Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop was falsely painted as Russian disinformation in the weeks leading up to the election.
Although Democrats and the rest of “official Washington” claim the election was secure, they spent zero hours proving that case. Instead, they seized on the disruptions on Jan. 6 as the real threat to democracy and gave their clients in the lapdog media the spectacle of the select committee’s show trial. What is most hurtful to the Democrats and RINOs who wrote the narrative is that their two years of work propping up the infrastructure of a “deadly insurrection” was undone in less than 60 minutes by Carlson, who didn’t deny that violence had been done on Jan. 6, but committed the unforgivable sin of putting it in perspective.
Thus, where the Jan. 6 committee saw the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War, Tucker Carlson showed pictures of protesters walking in the door of the Capitol and milling around, as he said, like sightseers. No matter how many times Carlson said he was not excusing any violence, the proponents of the “deadly insurrection” narrative claimed that showing non-violent protesters was an affront to their efforts to demonize Trump voters as terrorists. And, of course, they were right to worry.
But it wasn’t just the images by themselves that overturned the official narrative; it was the muscular words of Carlson as he held to account not just the select committee, but also congressional leaders, Capitol Police, and the Department of Justice. This was a rarely seen J’accuse moment in which the system’s irresponsible scapegoating of the Deplorables was held up to the light.
“Committee members lied about what they saw,” Carlson said, “and then hid the evidence from the public as well as from Jan. 6 criminal defendants and their lawyers. That is unforgivable.”
The most important video came in four specific batches, each of which puts a dent in the official story. As explained by Carlson, they were as follows:
– Shots of Jacob Chansley (the QAnon Shaman) being escorted through the Capitol by a number of police and never being arrested or prevented from moving about freely. As Carlson points out, the video raises questions about whether the Department of Justice violated Chansley’s rights to a fair trial because he was denied potentially exculpatory evidence. The video plainly raises questions about whether Chansley was an intruder or a guest in the Capitol. Carlson questioned whether similar footage could have assisted many others charged with Jan. 6 crimes by showing that the “deadly insurrection” was nothing of the kind.
– Shots of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick apparently waving protesters out of the building, raising serious questions about the honesty of the many media and political figures who claimed Sicknick’s death was caused by the protesters. In the footage, Sicknick appears to be unharmed and wearing a helmet some time after he was reportedly murdered by having his head bashed in with a fire extinguisher. Sicknick died the next day as a result of a stroke caused by blood clots at the base of his brain. The medical examiner found no external or internal injuries and ruled that Sicknick died of natural causes.
– Shots of Ray Epps, the mysterious figure who urged protesters to “go IN to the Capitol” both the night before and the day of the mob scene. Epps testified before the Jan. 6 committee that he left the riot prior to texting his nephew that he had “orchestrated” the attack, but Carlson found footage of Epps a half hour later still in the middle of the mob, although suspiciously not following his own insistent advice to enter the Capitol. Carlson and others have questioned whether Epps was a federal agent or informant who was provoking the attack as part of a political scheme to create chaos. At the very least, it appears that Epps should be charged with lying to Congress, and if a serious investigation is ever done by anyone other than Tucker Carlson, we should try to find out why the man who said he “orchestrated” the Jan. 6 attack was never charged with any crime.
– Shots of Sen. Josh Hawley exiting the Capitol under the direction of the Capitol Police. In some ways, this footage is the most damning example of the purely partisan political nature of the Jan. 6 committee. Video of Hawley, who had been one of the leaders of the movement to challenge the 2020 election due to irregularities in six or more states, was shown to a national audience for comic effect as it appeared that the senator was being entirely selfish as he fled from the protesters. The effect of watching Hawley running across a Capitol hallway like a shooting gallery rabbit was so humorous that it was put on a loop for the national TV audience to get a good chuckle. Hawley was held up for ridicule by late-night comedians and cable TV “news” hosts. But when Carlson pulled the full video, he discovered that the Capitol Police had ushered dozens of senators and staff out of the building at high speed for their own protection. Hawley, as it turned out, was one of the last to leave, and not the coward he was portrayed to be. Nothing better illustrated the Jan. 6 select committee’s “narrative building” exercise than this attempt to humiliate a U.S. senator who made the mistake of “running” as a Republican.
As Carlson noted at one point, “By controlling the images you were allowed to view from January 6, they controlled how the public understood that day. They could lie about what happened and you would never know the difference. Those lies had a purpose. They created a pretext for a federal crackdown on opponents of the Uniparty in Washington.”
It is that crackdown which has occupied the Biden administration, the FBI, and much of Congress for the last two years. Can the heroic resistance of one TV journalist turn those efforts around and restore a sense of justice to the land of the free? I’ll believe it when I see it, but in the meantime it’s nice to have someone to root for.
