With Tucker Carlson's Possession of Sensitive Jan. 6 Footage, Another Attempted Coup Just Became a Very Real Possibility
McCarthy decided it was better idea to supply thousands of hours of sensitive camera footage of the Capitol interior to none other than Fox so-called "news" anchor Tucker Carlson.
Photo by Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash
Those who control information get to decide what’s “true”.
It’s no secret Fox so-called “news” has positioned itself for the past couple decades as the de facto propaganda arm of the republican party.
While other right-wing hate media outlets have since been created in its image, the “fair and balanced” Fox is about to redefine what “propaganda” means.
The end of last year, the January 6 Commission released its final report in which former president Donald Trump was referred to the Justice Department (DOJ) for prosecution on four charges: obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; conspiracy to defraud the United States by assisting, aiding, or comforting those involved in an insurrection.
The new republican majority in the House of Representatives, under the speakership of Calif. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, last week submitted privileged camera footage of the attempted coup that overran the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He didn’t submit it to the January 6 Commission, however.
McCarthy decided it was better idea to supply thousands of hours of sensitive camera footage of the Capitol interior to none other than Fox so-called “news” anchor Tucker Carlson.
The leading right-wing hate media network that touts the slogan “fair and balanced,” and has spent the past two years lying about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, now has free-reign to manipulate and spin this evidence to support the lie it has been promoting that the insurrection was nothing but “vandalism.”
Last year, Carlson described one of the darkest days in recent American history as an “outbreak of mob violence, a forgettably minor outbreak by recent standards.”
He is the producer of a so-called “documentary series” full of conspiracy theories insisting the Jan. 6 insurrection was a “false flag” event. One of which argues Capitol attackers were federal employees disguised as Trump supporters to damage the republican brand.
Over and over again, he’s used his influential billionaire-funded platform to promote the racist so-called “white replacement” theory that claims people of color are “replacing” the white population.
This is literally the last person who should hold such sensitive information about a republican-led domestic terror attack on our nation’s Capitol.
As Mark Sumner recently reported for Daily Kos:
That guy now has 44,000 fresh hours of video from which to cut and paste to generate new attacks on reason, justice, and the nation. And when it comes to refuting Carlson’s claims, what is the rest of the news media going to do when they do not have access to the information that the Fox propagandist has been handed?
Imagine the GOP meltdown if Hakeem Jefferies or Nancy Pelosi did this for CNN or MSNBC.
As The Guardian warned:
Many critics warned that Capitol security could be endangered if Carlson aired security footage that details how rioters accessed the building and routes lawmakers used to flee to safety. A sharply partisan retelling of the Capitol attack could accelerate a dangerous rewriting of the history of January 6, when Trump encouraged supporters to attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s election.
Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat and a chief counsel during Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, explained:
It’s a shocking development that brings in both political concerns but even more importantly, security concerns. It is not lost on anyone that the one person that the speaker decides to give hours and hours of sensitive secret surveillance footage is the person who peddled a bogus documentary trying to debunk responsibility for the January 6 riot from Donald Trump onto others. Kevin McCarthy has turned over the security of the Capitol to Tucker Carlson and that’s a scary thought.
What is another term for an attempted coup?
This is exactly the chilling possibility concerning Washington lawmakers like Calif. Democrat Zoe Lofgren, who served on the January 6 Committee.
She stated:
It’s really a road map to people who might want to attack the Capitol again. It would be of huge assistance to them.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused McCarthy of presenting an “egregious security breach,” adding in a letter to colleagues:
Unfortunately, the apparent disclosure of sensitive video material is yet another example of the grave threat to the security of the American people represented by the extreme MAGA Republican majority.
Rep. Adam Schiff tweeted:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Speaker McCarthy, accusing the Speaker of exchanging the video footage for popularity among the MAGA republican base.
Unfortunately, Speaker McCarthy, to get the votes he needed from the MAGA wing of the House Republican Conference to become speaker, agreed to make tens of thousands of hours of sensitive footage from across the Capitol complex publicly available. This disclosure poses grave security risks to members of Congress and everyone who works on Capitol Hill.
Echoing his colleagues about the potential security threat, he added:
The speaker is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11. The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected and its public release would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch and allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded.
Releasing security footage publicly reveals the location of security cameras across the Capitol grounds, making it harder and more dangerous for our brave Capitol police officers to do their job. It also risks exposing the carefully laid out and highly guarded plans for the continuity of government, intended to preserve our democracy in the event of an attack. All things anyone who would want to harm our country would love to learn.
The possibility of another January 6 is very real, especially when we take into consideration the fact that the new republican House majority has already made it clear it is hell-bent on making sure a coup comes to fruition next time, maybe next year.
But it can’t do it alone.
The so-called “sedition caucus” needs help from average working Americans.
But how does it secure that help without looking right into a screen or tweeting something as blatant as, “Come help us overthrow democracy”?
While that might work for some, we’ll just do what what we’ve always done when it’s in the wealthy hegemony’s best interest to keep the public ignorant.
We do it with the history of slavery in America.
We do it with voting.
We do it with language.
Some are even doing it with books now.
We suppress the information.
U.S. Capitol tours resumed this summer, allowing tourists an opportunity to stand in the building where the historic disgrace, degradation, and desecration occurred.
It’s a perfect opportunity to educate people on that dark day so it doesn’t happen again because, as we know, knowledge is power.
But Capitol tour guides aren’t allowed to include it in their presentations.
Couple it with Fox now possessing information about secure locations, offices, doors, and editable footage, and we’ve got a situation rife for the kind of authoritarian takeover the republican party is itching to foment.