McConnell, several GOP lawmakers join Democratic criticism of Fox over Jan. 6 footage

Leaders of both parties in the Senate have sharply criticized Tucker Carlson and Fox News for releasing footage of January 6 that contradicts the official view and demanded that the broadcasting of further images along these lines be discontinued. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, lamented that the footage used "conveniently" selected images of moments of calm amid the "chaos and violence" experienced that day. Other senators from both parties were equally dissatisfied with the videos, however, some Republican congressmen expressed their support and asked for less ambiguous explanations from the defenders of the official truth.

In an internal email, accessed by the media, Manger lamented that the Fox report contained "offensive and misleading conclusions about the January 6 attack. The program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video. The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments." "Those of you who contributed to the effort to allow this country’s legislative process to continue know firsthand what actually happened," the official added.

"Scandalous and false"

In the brief, Manger criticized that the program's producers, never contacted him or his agents to review the content to be broadcast, or to contrast the information to be offered to their audience. He also strongly denied that "our officers helped the rioters and acted as 'tour guides,' This is outrageous and false." According to the head of Capitol security, who was not in office at the time of the events, he justified the agents' actions by stating that, "Those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk the rioters into getting each other to leave the building."

McConnell takes a stand with Congressional Police Chief

Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell noted that “It was a mistake, in my view, [for] Fox News to depict this in a way completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol” described. The senator appeared before the media with the statement from the Chief of the Capitol Police in his hand and pointed out that he subscribed to the officer's statement regarding Carlson's report.

Schumer: "One of the most embarrassing hours of television."

More forceful was Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. During the Senate floor, Schumer called Carlson's slot "one of the most shameful hours we’ve seen on cable television." Schumer demanded that Fox News and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, tell Carlson not to broadcast any more footage. The veteran politician claimed to be "furious" with both the host and Kevin McCarthy for providing him with the recordings. "Speaker McCarthy has played a treacherous, treacherous game in catering to the far right," he noted.

Schumer subsequently used Twitter to snidely demand Carlson rectify the situation. The senator expressed his willingness to go on Fox's program to be interviewed if the host admits live on air in advance, that "he has been lying to them about the 2020 elections and about what happened on January 6."

Bipartisan criticism

Congressmen from both parties were equally outraged by the images aired by Carlson's program last Monday. For example, Republican Senator, Thom Tillis, defined it with one word: "bullshit." In the same vein, but with more words, conservative Senator Kevin Kramer stated: "To somehow put that in the same category as a permitted peaceful protest is just a lie."

Democratic Senator Jamie Raskin, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, accused those responsible for the program of having jeopardized the safety of lawmakers. Raskin denounced that the images broadcast could be used to map the Capitol and the evacuation route of legislators.

Several conservative legislators with Carlson

Nevertheless, some Republican representatives showed their support for Tucker and endorsed the veracity of what was published. Thus, Senator Ron Johnson on Twitter assured that "the truth is beginning to be revealed" and thanks both the presenter and the speaker for bringing it to light. In addition, the legislator asked, "When will judges begin applying justice equally? It doesn't look like 'thousands of armed insurrectionists' to me." Conservative Representative Mike Collins stated that "I have seen enough. Release all J6 political prisoners now."