Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy recently said that he is willing to release the security footage from the January 6 riot at the Capitol, according to the Washington Times.
Kevin McCarthy prepared to release all Capitol footage of Jan. 6 protest – Washington Times
During his weekly press conference on January 12, McCarthy blasted former speaker Nancy Pelosi for politicizing the select committee and barring his appointments from sitting on the committee. He said instead of just presenting a partisan report, the public should be allowed to see what happened on January 6.
While the speaker did not commit to releasing the footage, he said he was willing to ultimately release the footage but he wanted “to be very thoughtful about it.”
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz told podcaster, Charlie Kirk, that releasing the long-withheld surveillance footage from the Capitol was one of the promises McCarthy made during his negotiations with Republican holdouts during the speaker fight.
It is estimated as much as 14,000 hours of footage has been withheld from the public. During the January 13 broadcast of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson questioned why the 14,000 hours of footage have remained under wraps and argued that the solution to January 6 is transparency.
Tucker Carlson: This is why Jan 6 footage is still hidden | Fox News Video
Playing a clip of McCarthy’s press conference, Carlson asked what possible counterargument could be used to dispute McCarthy’s releasing the footage.
Carlson cited a quote from a legal brief from US Attorney Channing Phillips who argued that the disclosure of the surveillance footage from that day could harm national security interests.
Phillips claimed if the public could see the footage, they would know the position of the cameras and the area they cover, and “the cat is out of the bag.” Carlson blasted Phillips’ claim as “completely absurd.”
He argued that it isn’t a closely guarded secret that every public building in the Western hemisphere is covered by surveillance cameras. He said it isn’t national security concerns that prevented the Democrats from releasing the footage.
Instead, Democrats are “more concerned about whether you’ll discover how many law enforcement agents actively helped January 6 protesters enter the building.”
