Tucker Carlson Releases Jan. 6 Footage, Sparking Questions and Controversy

Tucker Carlson aired newly released footage on his show last night, igniting a maelstrom of speculation and controversy.

The top-rated Fox News news host aired the first snippets of the more than 40,000 hours of surveillance footage he obtained from Jan. 6, 2021. Carlson called the events of that day “mostly peaceful chaos.”

Footage showed officers closely escorting Jacob Chansley, aka the “QAnon Shaman,” as he walked through the Capitol Building.

As the New York Post reports:

In a statement, the Capitol Police suggest that one of the officers with Chansley was trying to “de-escalate” the situation because he was outnumbered.

But that does not explain why Chansley, who was unarmed, was able to walk past seven more officers without being apprehended.

…

He “understood that the Capitol Police were his allies. … If he was in the act of committing such a grave crime, why didn't the officers standing right next to him place him under arrest?”

In January 2023, a judge sentenced Chansley to 41 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release. Carlson later played a clip from a jailhouse interview with Chansley where he lamented that “The one very serious regret that I have [is] believing that when we were waved in by police officers, that it was acceptable.”

Before his sentence, Chansley spoke to the judge for more than 30 minutes, saying he wasn't an insurrectionist or domestic terrorist as claimed but a “good man who broke the law.”

“I was in solitary confinement because of me. Because of my decision. I broke the law … I should do what Gandhi would do and take responsibility,” he added.

Judge Royce Lamberth compared Chansley's remarks to Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches. Still, he added that that day's “horrific” actions didn't justify a shorter sentence.

A bipartisan Senate report found at least seven people had died in connection to the riot.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Carlson and his team “unfettered” access to the security video last week.

The Daily Wire‘s Ryan Saavedra has more on other clips aired by Carlson of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. Rioters attacked Sicknick with pepper spray as he fought to keep them from entering the Capitol. He died the next day following a series of strokes.

The New York Times initially claimed in a report that Sicknick was killed when he was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher by rioters. The newspaper later retracted the report after an autopsy found that he died from a stroke the following day.

The U.S. Capitol Police released a statement on April 19, 2021, saying that the District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that Sicknick “died of natural causes.”

“This does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol,” the USCP claimed in a statement. “The attack on our officers, including Brian, was an attack on our democracy.”

Carlson also said that video evidence shows Ray Epps, a man whose presence at the Capitol riot has raised questions, lied under oath when he told investigators he was at his hotel when he texted his nephew he “orchestrated” protests at the Capitol.

United States Capitol Police didn't respond to requests for comment about the release of that day's footage to Carlson, save for Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who said, “When Congressional Leadership or Congressional Oversight Committees ask for things like this, we must give it to them.”

Democrats called the development dangerous.

Congressman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., personally tried to stop the Fox News host from airing the footage. When his attempts failed, Schiff took to Twitter to call Carlson “a weak, weak man.”

Meanwhile, Carlson plans to show more videos depicting five stories from that day, which he claims will “demolish” the narrative of the U.S. Capitol attack.

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