Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated Tuesday that Fox News should prevent Tucker Carlson from airing more January 6 video footage of “lies” Tuesday evening.
Carlson released footage Monday that alleged Democrats knew Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick had not been murdered during the riot but mislead the public about his death, and that Ray Epps lied to the committee about when he left Capitol grounds. In addition, Carlson allegedly debunked the January 6 Committee’s claim that Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) had run away from the Capitol in fear. It also showed police escorting Shaman Jacob Chansley inside the Capitol.
Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor, was alarmed by the recently disclosed footage and warned more will be released Tuesday evening by Carlson. Schumer said:
I and so many others who were here are just furious with Tucker Carson. With disregard of the risks and knowing full well he was lying, lying to his audience, Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a lengthy segment last night, arguing the January 6 Capitol attack was not a violent insurrection.
Schumer went on to say:
To say January 6 was not violent is a lie, a lie pure and simple. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a prime-time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain.
“And he’s going to come back tonight with another segment,” Schumer warned. “Fox News should tell him not to. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, tell Carlson not to run a second segment of lies”:
“Rupert Murdoch has a special obligation to stop Tucker Carlson from going on tonight [and] from letting him go on again and again and again [because] our democracy depends on it,” Schumer later told reporters.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday was also alarmed that January 6 video footage was publicly aired by Carlson, noting the previous condemnation from the United States Capitol Police chief. McConnell told reporters:
My concern is how it was depicted. It’s a different issue. Clearly, the chief of the Capitol Police correctly described what most of us witnessed on January 6. It was a mistake for Fox News to depict this in a way that is completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at Capitol thinks.
McConnell’s reference to the Capitol Police’s description relates to a statement issued by USCP’s Chief of Police, J. Thomas Manger, who depicted Monday’s video footage as “offensive” and would lead to “misleading conclusions.”
Manger also denied the Capitol Police on January 6 “helped the rioters and acted like ‘tour guides,'” which Carlson alleged.
“This is outrageous and false,” Manger stated Tuesday. “I don’t have to remind you how outnumbered our officers were on January 6. Those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk to rioters into getting each others to leave the building.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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