McCarthy drawing criticism for giving Carlson exclusive access to video of Jan. 6 attack

Geoff Bennett:

Some Republicans are once again relitigating what happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sharing key video footage of the Capitol attack with a star FOX personality.

Lisa Desjardins brings us up to speed about how it happened and what Tucker Carlson hopes to find in the footage.

Tucker Carlson, FOX News Anchor:

And why are they still hiding thousands of hours of surveillance footage from within the Capitol?

Lisa Desjardins:

For months, he asked for access.

Tucker Carlson:

You can't know whether the Capitol surveillance videos pan, tilt or zoom.

Lisa Desjardins:

And now Tucker Carlson has it. This week, Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy granted the FOX News host access to 44,000 hours of security footage from Capitol grounds on January 6. Carlson controls a prime-time hour on the most watched cable network.

Tucker Carlson:

On the basis of a wholly created myth about what happened that day.

Lisa Desjardins:

And has been a megaphone for baseless conspiracy theories that deflect blame from former President Trump, including the idea that rioters on January 6 were actually victims of a government false flag plot. He sees surveillance footage as possible evidence.

Tucker Carlson:

Our producers, some of our smartest producers, have been there looking at this stuff and trying to figure out what it means and how it contradicts or not the story that we have been told for more than two years. We think already that, in some ways, it does contradict that story.

Lisa Desjardins:

Carlson's words over the last two years reveal the narrative he wants.

Tucker Carlson:

How many law enforcement agents actively helped January 6 protesters enter the building that day? Some of them definitely did. We know that for a fact.

Ray Epps was standing in exactly the same place that a lot of people who went to jail were standing, but he wasn't charged. His name was taken off the FBI's most wanted list. Why is that?

Lisa Desjardins:

But evidence shows that Ray Epps, an Arizona man who was at the Capitol, bank Capitol, was telling protesters to calm down. And Carlson's allegation that Epps was working for the FBI has been debunked.

Protester:

USA! USA!

Lisa Desjardins:

Overall, there is no evidence of undercover law enforcement instigating the rioters.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA):

Yes, I think the public should see what happened on the…

Lisa Desjardins:

In granting FOX assets access, McCarthy keeps a promise to hard-line members in his conference from negotiations boosted by Carlson himself.

Tucker Carlson:

If Kevin McCarthy wants to be the speaker, he is going to have to do things he would never do otherwise.

Lisa Desjardins:

McCarthy told The New York Times this week that the tapes belong to the public and he wants sunshine on them. But Carlson is not a neutral arbiter. He has condemned violence, but also defended the motivations behind it.

Tucker Carlson:

How, for example, did senile hermit Joe Biden get 15 million more votes than his former boss, rock star crowd-surfer Barack Obama?

Lisa Desjardins:

Despite raising conspiracies, recent court filings show Carlson and other top FOX stars didn't believe some of the pro-Trump claims.

In text messages, Carlson wrote about a one-time Trump adviser: "Sidney Powell is lying, by the way. I caught her. It's insane."

Carlson's not the first to access these tapes. They have already been reviewed by the House Select Committee Investigating January 6 last Congress. Republicans accuse the group of cherry-picking those clips, and FOX did not air much of its hearings.

Tucker Carlson:

They are lying, and we are not going to help them do it.

Lisa Desjardins:

Back at the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a scathing statement, accusing McCarthy of "exposing the Capitol Complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11."

McCarthy says he intends to grant others access to the video in the future. But, until then, it remains an exclusive deal between the leading Republican in Congress and the party's prime-time star.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.