“The police facilitated January 6th, this is why they withheld the tapes”: Conservatives react to the publication of the videos of the incidents at the Capitol

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, announced that 95% of the security camera videos from January 6, the date on which thousands of supporters of former President Donald Trump entered the hallways of the Capitol, will be released.

The other 5%, according to Johnson, will not be revealed to the general public because “that may involve sensitive security information related to the building architecture.”

“This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials,” Johnson said of the posted videos.

So far, 90 hours of tapes have been posted on a House Administration Committee website, and the rest of the videos are expected to be uploaded in the coming months.

Insurrection or manipulation?

After the release of the tapes, several conservative commentators reacted to the posted security videos, denouncing that the recordings show that there was no “insurrection” that day, a term used to describe the event for the last two years by politicians, prosecutors, media and progressive activists.

“The police facilitated January 6th, this is why they withheld the tapes,” host Tim Pool wrote. “The J6 committee should be censured and expelled for lying to the public.”

Commentator Matt Kim also left his impressions of the tapes, asserting that the revelation demonstrates that there was an agenda to keep citizens uninformed about what really happened on January 6.

“We were told this was a violent insurrection, an overt attempt to overthrow the government. This was a clear agenda to keep people misinformed but eventually truth prevails,” Kim said.

An Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, who identifies himself as “Steve” on X, wrote a post requesting the incarceration of the FBI agents and the entire January 6 committee if the tapes indeed show that what happened on January 6 was not an insurrection.

The hard-right wing of the GOP supports Johnson’s decision

After the publication of the tapes, Republicans representing the most conservative wing of the party came out to support Johnson’s decision, acknowledging that he fulfilled his campaign promise to reveal the January 6 videos.

“Doing what he said he would do. Good,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote in X.

“Thank you @SpeakerJohnson,” said Republican Matt Gaetz, who led the impeachment of the previous Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

Former President Trump was not far behind, praising Johnson on Truth Social: “Congratulations to Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson for having the Courage and Fortitude to release all the J6 Tapes, which will explicitly reveal what really happened on January 6th!”