Biden Says Republicans, Tucker Carlson Should Feel Ashamed Over Jan. 6 Tapes

US President Joe Biden briefly addresses journalists moments before departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on March 3, 2023, as he travels to Wilmington, Delaware. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

President Joe Biden has taken aim at Republican lawmakers who he said should feel “ashamed” of themselves for allegedly supporting efforts to “undermine” law enforcement’s response during the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol.

“More than 140 officers were injured on Jan 6,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “I’ve said before: How dare anyone diminish or deny the hell they went through? I hope House Republicans feel ashamed for what was done to undermine our law enforcement.”

Biden delivered the critical comments in response to a Twitter post sharing an internal memo allegedly from U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, which criticized Fox News host Tucker Carlson for airing some of the never-disclosed video and commentary on the breach that was allegedly “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions about the January 6 attack.”

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gave Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of surveillance footage from Jan. 6 in February and the host aired some of it on March 6.

Monday’s footage showed Capitol Police officers peacefully walking around the Capitol with Jacob Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman” who is currently serving time in prison after pleading guilty to one count of obstructing an official proceeding in September 2021.

He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to 41 months in prison in November 2021.

Another short clip appeared to show Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick walking around inside the Capitol Rotunda and motioning to protesters. He died the following day.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson takes part in a discussion in Washington on March 29, 2019. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Capitol Police Chief Takes Aim at Carlson

Carlson claimed the footage is evidence that “whatever happened to Brian Sicknick was very obviously not the result of violence he suffered at the entrance to the Capitol,” referring to reports that Sicknick had died as a result of injuries he sustained from Trump supporters during the breach.

An autopsy report released by the Washington, D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office in April 2021 showed that Sicknick’s death was ultimately determined to have been from natural causes after he suffered two strokes near the base of his brain stem.

However, the examiner noted that “all that transpired played a role in his condition,” seemingly referring to the events of Jan. 6.

Manger’s memo accused Carlson of having “conveniently cherry-picked” footage from the “calmer moments” of the breach, adding that the commentary “fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.”

The police chief added that the program’s commentary was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions about the Jan. 6 attack.”

“I don’t have to remind you how outnumbered our officers were on January 6,” Manger wrote. “Those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building.”

U.S. Capitol Police did not dispute reports describing the memo allegedly sent by Manger when contacted by The Epoch Times and said that Carlson’s team did not contact the agency before airing the segment.

However, in a statement to The Hill, Capitol Police said they had “repeatedly requested that any clips be shown to us first for a security review,” and that “so far we have only been given the ability to preview a single clip out of the multiple clips that aired.”

Carlson claims he checked with Capitol Police before airing the footage.

Jacob Chansley is seen outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Brent Stirton/Getty Images

Lawmakers Voice Concerns Over Carlson Footage

Prior to giving the tapes to Carlson, McCarthy had said in January that he was looking to release all of the security footage in an effort to promote transparency.

“I think the American public should actually see all that happened instead of a report that’s written for a political basis,” he said during his first press conference as speaker on Jan. 12.

The U.S. Capitol Police had earlier provided around 14,000 hours of footage from the Jan. 6 breach to the House Select Committee probing the incident.

That committee closed down in January after completing an 18-month investigation into the breach and sending its work to the Justice Department along with a recommendation for prosecuting former President Donald Trump on several charges, including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, making a false statement to the federal government, and conspiracy to defraud the federal government.

Trump has dismissed the committee’s criminal referrals.

While some lawmakers have supported the release of the footage to Carlson, others, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), have expressed concerns over the Fox News host’s depiction of the events.

“It was a mistake in my view for Fox News to depict this in a way that’s completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday.

Schumer, meanwhile, said on the Senate floor in Washington on the same day, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a primetime cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night.”

According to the Justice Department, approximately 140 police officers were assaulted during the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol.