Nothing to see here. What’s the big deal? You were snookered.
That pretty much sums up Tucker Carlson’s take on what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. The Fox News prime-time star was given 40,000-plus hours of video from that day by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Carlson went over his so-called findings the past two nights on his program.
First off, shame on McCarthy for acting as if handing over the video to Carlson was the most transparent way to get out the facts of what happened that horrific day — as if we didn’t already know, as if we didn’t already see it with our own eyes on live television.
Of course, to the surprise of no one, Carlson sifted through all that footage, edited out the violence, conveniently found moments when everything looked peaceful and then declared the whole thing no big deal.
No big deal.
He called those walking through the Capitol building “sightseers.” He said, “These were not insurrectionists.” He said the video “demolishes” the claim that Jan. 6 was an insurrection.
No big deal?
NBC News’ Sahil Kapur thoroughly summed it up by writing, “Video that Carlson didn’t air shows police and rioters engaged in hours of violent combat. Nearly 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack. About 140 officers were assaulted that day, and about 326 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees, including 106 assaults that happened with deadly or dangerous weapons. About 60 people pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement. Two pipe bombs were also planted nearby but were not detonated.”
No big deal?
Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger wrote an internal memo to officers that was obtained by Politico’s Kyle Cheney. Manger wrote that Carlson “conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video.” He went on to say that Carlson “fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.”
No big deal?
In a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “To say Jan. 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 (Monday) 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.”
Republicans also pushed back against Carlson. North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis tried to play it down the middle. He told CNN, “I think it’s bull(expletive)” when talking about what Carlson presented on his show.
North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer told CNN, “I think that breaking through glass windows and doors to get into the United States Capitol against the orders of police is a crime. I think, particularly when you come into the chambers, when you start opening the members’ desks, when you stand up in their balcony, to somehow put that in the same category as a permitted peaceful protest is just a lie.”
And Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell took the strongest stand among the GOP, backing what Manger wrote. McConnell said, “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.”
McConnell took issue with how Carlson’s Monday show depicted Jan. 6. McConnell said, “Clearly the chief of the Capitol Police, in my view, correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on Jan. 6. So that's my reaction to it.”
There’s more …
Carlson also claimed that the death of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick had nothing to do with Jan. 6. On his show Monday, Carlson showed video of Sicknick walking around — supposedly after the attack. Talking about the media and the Jan. 6 House committee investigating the events of that day, Carlson said, “They knew he was not murdered by the mob, but they claimed it anyway.”
Manger said in his memo, “The Department maintains, as anyone with common sense would, that had Officer Sicknick not fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted, Officer Sicknick would not have died the next day.”
In fact, the official medical report said Sicknick died of natural causes after suffering two strokes and determined “all that transpired played a role in his condition” — a reference to what he went through on Jan. 6.
In a statement, Sicknick’s family said, “Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it.”
More election lies
Carlson not only pushed the incredibly insulting narrative that Jan. 6 was a peaceful tour of the Capitol by sightseers, but he introduced his Jan. 6 findings on Monday by pushing more lies about the 2020 election. He told his viewers, “The protesters were angry: They believed that the election they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted. They were right. In retrospect, it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy. Given the facts that have since emerged about that election, no honest person can deny it.”
Wait, did he say angry protesters were right in thinking that the election had been unfairly conducted?
And that is based on what, exactly?
Carlson then went on to say that “they” (assuming he means Democrats and the media) are saying the real crime was Jan. 6, 2021, not the 2020 election.
The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake wrote, “The flourish was characteristic of Carlson’s show: Gesturing toward a broad conspiracy without backing it up with any real facts — all while stating that anyone who disagrees must be lying. It was also amorphous and nonspecific enough to give Carlson plausible deniability that he was talking about things like mass voter fraud or voting machines (vs., say, the mail balloting processes that some on the right have cast as ‘unfair’). But the thrust was clear.”
My two cents …
The election denialism combined with glossing over the reality of Jan. 6 seems as if it is coming from a common playbook. The Associated Press’ Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Farnoush Amiri wrote, “Carlson is reviving the falsehoods launched by Trump and his allies, including Republicans in Congress, that the attackers were peaceful protesters and acted like tourists, despite the well-documented carnage of the day and the deaths of five people in the riot and its aftermath. It’s part of an effort to reverse criminal charges for those being prosecuted in the attack, many of whom have pleaded guilty and said they regretted their actions on Jan. 6.”
While nothing Carlson says should be surprising at this point, it is remarkable that Fox News allows him to go on the air and act as if Jan. 6 was just some sightseeing tour or peaceful protest. His gaslighting act and hey-I’m-just-asking-questions schtick are irresponsible, divisive and dangerous, and Fox News allows it. It shows Carlson can say and do whatever he wants with no repercussions.
We all watched what happened on Jan. 6 in real time. We all saw video of that day from organizations such as The Washington Post and PBS’s “Frontline” and countless other places, most importantly the Jan. 6 committee. Just take a look at this video.
This wasn’t fake footage. Videos aren’t opinions. Our eyes didn’t deceive us. Some might try to argue about the origins of that day and debate who was to blame for all that transpired. But how can one possibly make a case that we didn’t see what we saw? How can anyone argue that Jan. 6 was not violent? That it was no big deal?
That’s exactly what Carlson is doing.
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