Fox News host Tucker Carlson says he will soon begin availing details gleaned from his exclusive access to roughly 40,000 hours of footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The TV personality said on Twitter on Friday that after “much talk about our access to the January 6th surveillance,” he would air “the results of our investigation” during his prime-time show Monday and Tuesday.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, sparked an uproar among Democratic lawmakers after releasing the previously sealed footage to Mr. Carlson last month.
He said the move was in keeping with his transparency pledge to Republican holdouts who opposed his speakership.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, accused the speaker of endangering lawmakers and “needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11.”
Mr. Schumer said Mr. McCarthy’s choice to give the footage to Mr. Carlson “laid bare that this sham is simply about pandering to MAGA election deniers, not the truth.”
Mr. McCarthy has also faced blowback from several media outlets, who raised concerns that the release of the footage to Mr. Carlson exclusively would further polarize the public over the Capitol riot.
Mr. McCarthy defended his decision in an interview with the Washington Post earlier this week.
“It almost seems like the press is jealous,” McCarthy told the outlet. “And that’s interesting because every person in the press works off exclusives on certain things.”
He said Mr. Carlson had been asking for the footage.
“So I let him come in and see it, but everyone’s going to get it,” he said.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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