​Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump’s Propaganda Minister.

If Donald Trump needs a propaganda minister, he found one in the person of Tucker Carlson, an opinion host for Fox News. Since the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson has been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and his lies about the election being stolen.

Carlson made news last week for reporting on his prime-time cable show that the United States government had lied about what actually happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He based his claims on video surveillance tapes that were provided to him and his producers by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Why did Carlson, of all people, have access to the tapes, are his claims valid, and what does this say about Kevin McCarthy’s leadership? Let’s dig into these issues which have people on both sides of the aisle riled up.

Kevin McCarthy’s Role in the Drama: Sometime in early February, Kevin McCarthy provided Tucker Carlson and his producers unfettered access to the January 6, 2021 security videos of the Capitol. At the time McCarthy told reporters that he thinks that “the American public should actually see all that happened, instead of a report that’s written on a political basis”. The Speaker was referring to the January 6th Committee Final Report which places the blame for the Capitol riot squarely on the shoulders of Donald Trump.  So, it appears as if McCarthy wanted to set the record straight by providing exclusive access to the security tapes to an unbiased organization like Fox News! If Speaker McCarthy really wants transparency surrounding the events of January 6, as he has claimed, then why not allow access to the nearly 44,000 hours of video footage to all news outlets, simultaneously?
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Since becoming Speaker, McCarthy has been under intense pressure by the right wing of his party to release the videos to a sympathetic news outlet. If you had any doubts about whether or not the newly elected Speaker was beholden to extremists in his party, you shouldn’t anymore. Providing Tucker Carlson exclusive right to access the surveillance videos was a failure of leadership by McCarthy, pure and simple. 

Tucker Carlson Reports: After about three weeks of examining the video footage provided by Speaker McCarthy, Carlson reported his findings on March 6 during his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show on Fox News. The House members who pushed Speaker McCarthy to release the tapes got exactly what they wanted from Tucker Carlson.  Here are some of what he said about the January 6 Capitol riot:

“The protestors were angry. They believed that the election that they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted, and they were right. In retrospect it is clear that 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”.

“To divert attention from the details of the Presidential election itself, Democrats in Congress impaneled the House Select Committee on the January 6th attack. The point of the committee was to prevent Donald Trump from running for president again. The committee did not explain what happened inside the Capitol on January 6th.  Three weeks ago, the Speaker turned over 44,000 hours of tapes that the January 6th Committee had access to”.

“Committee members lied about what they saw, and then hid evidence from the public and from January 6th defendants and their lawyers. Speaker McCarthy rectified that crime by handing over the surveillance tapes to Fox News. We are providing a public service to bring the videos to you since the government didn’t want you to see them”.

“The videos prove beyond doubt the Democrats in Congress, assisted by Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, lied about what happened that day. They are liars. That is conclusive, and that fact should prevent them from ever being taken seriously again”.

“The video does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress. Instead, it shows police escorting people through the building.  The overwhelming majority of people in the Capitol were peaceful, they were orderly, and meek. These were not insurrectionists, they were sightseers”.

“The videos demolish the claim that what happened inside the Capitol was an insurrection. That’s why the Democratic Party and allies in the media withheld the videos from the public”.

“Members of the January 6th Committee hurt people and the country. They are liars. They lied. Members of the committee are liars”.
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This is strong stuff, if true.

​Donald Trump Responds: The following day Donald Trump claimed that the video “evidence” shown on Tucker Carlson’s show vindicated him from any wrong doing on January 6. He went on to state that Carlson’s assertions were irrefutable evidence that rioters have been wrongly accused of crimes. Trump thanked Carlson and Speaker McCarthy for their work in rectifying the official record. Trump then called for the release from custody of the people who have been convicted or pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Capitol riot.    

​What are we to Make of Tucker Carlson’s Assertions?

1. First of all, we need to remember that “Tucker Carlson Tonight” is an opinion show, not a news cast. Tucker Carlson is an entertainer. His job is to increase his show’s viewership by being provocative, and he succeeded. Last week his show was the highest rated cable news show in the country with nearly 3.5 million viewers. His core audience is made up of conservative Republicans who are mostly diehard Donald Trump supporters.
2. Tucker Carlson claimed that the government and the January 6th Committee selectively released video to the public which supported their claim that what happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a violent insurrection. Carlson also claimed that the government edited videos and held fake hearings and show trails. To prove his claims, Carlson aired only about ten minutes of the videos on his cable show last week. Of the over 40,000 hours of video footage that he and his producers had access to, he cherry-picked ten minutes of footage showing “peaceful protestors” casually walking through the Capitol on January 6th. Case closed, according to Tucker Carlson!
3. After reviewing the video surveillance for just under three weeks, Carlson and his producers came to the conclusion that the January 6th Committee had lied to the American people, and the committee’s conclusions were a fraud. The January 6th Committee worked for nearly two years, interviewed over 1000 witnesses under oath, examined approximately 125,000 documents, held ten public hearings, and had access to all the security videos from in and around the Capitol. Who do you think had a more complete picture of what happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021?  
4. During one of his broadcasts last week, Tucker Carlson lectured his audience about lying and how he is able to detect liars. To prove his point, he used about ten minutes of surveillance video to "prove" that certain members of Congress and the members of the January 6th Committee are lying about January 6. What makes Tucker Carlson the arbiter of the truth? Certainly not his words and deeds. Documents from a lawsuit filed by voting machine maker Dominion against Fox News revealed some interesting text messages between Tucker Carlson and his colleagues. These messages revealed that Carlson and others at Fox News had doubts about Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election, but continued to promote them anyway. In response to a question about Trump from one of his producers, Carlson texted, “I hate him passionately”. Why then would Carlson continue to champion Donald Trump on his cable show and promote the false narrative that the election had been stolen? Because Tucker Carlson is not after the truth, he is after ratings!

To Tucker Carlson these are meek sightseers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

​Come to your own conclusions about what actually happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The programming on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” last week is a good reminder that not everything presented on cable news networks is actually hard news. Much of it is opinion, and the hosts are pushing a certain agenda. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy knew this when he provided Tucker Carlson access to nearly 44,000 hours of surveillance video from the Capitol. This was a purely political move and not in the best interest of the country. To provide the transparency that he claims to want, Speaker McCarthy should immediately release that same video footage to any and all news outlets that request it. 

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Thanks,
Armchair American