Multiple media figures including NBC News’ Lester Holt and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow have expressed doubt in the January 6th Committee and in at least one case admitted that the new evidence released at the primetime hearing on Thursday already appeared “familiar.”
Following the hearing, Lester Holt discussed new footage released by the January 6th Committee, suggesting that the material was far from groundbreaking when he commented that “a lot of these shots will seem familiar to people, but maybe from a different angle.”
Breitbart News reported that both the testimony of Jason Miller, former spokesperson and adviser for former President Trump and the footage of violence played at the hearing by the January 6th Committee were deceptively edited. The footage contained audio of Donald Trump describing the peaceful portion of the rally overlaid on scenes of violence. The footage was widely critiqued, with the committee being blasted for “running political commercials.”
After the primetime hearing, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow briefly broke from the January 6th Committee’s narrative in a conversation with Chris Hayes and admitted that the Trump rally did not directly cause the breaching of the Capitol, stating that “that rally was very far from the Capitol, and the people who … did the initial breach that allowed everybody else to come in, they never even went to that rally.”
These responses from media figures come after it was reported that an aide to the January 6th Committee noted that the primetime hearing would be devoid of any “shocking revelations” and would instead summarize existing information that had already been made publicly available.
Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com