Schumer Calls on Fox News to Stop Tucker Carlson From Airing More Jan. 6 Footage

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) walks to speak to members of the media at the US Capitol in Washington on March 2, 2023. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Senate’s top Democrat on March 7 called on Fox News to stop host Tucker Carlson from airing additional, never-disclosed footage from Jan. 6, 2021.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a primetime cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor in Washington. “And he’s going to come back tonight with another segment. Fox News should tell him not to.”

Fox News and Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch “must order Tucker Carlson to stop,” Schumer added in a written statement.

A Fox spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Carlson on Monday aired footage showing U.S. Capitol Police officers walking around with Jacob Chansley, a Jan. 6 defendant serving time in prison after pleading guilty. Another clip showed Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick inside the Capitol Rotunda after he clashed with people outside the building.

President Joe Biden has called the breach “a deadly insurrection” but the footage “does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress,” Carlson said. Instead, it “shows mostly peaceful chaos.”

Carlson also said that in the crowd, a small number of people “were hooligans” who “committed vandalism.” The overwhelming majority, though, “were peaceful,” he said. Some 1,000 people have been charged with Jan. 6 crimes, including 326 with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, and more than 100 officers reported injuries from that day.

Schumer claimed that Carlson “told the bold-faced lie that the Capitol attack, which we all saw with our own eyes, was somehow not an attack at all.” Carlson did not say that. Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Schumer also said that what happened was “an insult to the memory of every single person who perished in connection to the attack, especially to the memory of Brian Sicknick.” A medical examiner ruled Sicknick, who perished the day after the breach, died of natural causes. No officers died on Jan. 6, though several committed suicide within months.

Schumer condemned House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who gave Carlson access to the footage, as well as Fox. “I strongly condemn Speaker McCarthy’s actions, and fiercely oppose his decision to share this footage with Carlson,” Schumer said. McCarthy, whose office did not return an inquiry, has defended giving Carlson access and has said the footage will be made available more widely in the future.

Carlson said it was a crime the footage had not been disclosed previously.

“Whatever you think of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, he rectified that crime, and we’re grateful that he did,” he said.

Some additional lawmakers also decried Carlson’s segment. “We warned Speaker McCarthy of the dangers of giving Capitol security footage to Tucker Carlson—one of America’s most extreme propagandists. Having watched his manipulative editing & narrative spinning refuel the fire that caused Jan 6, we were correct,” Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.) said.

But others supported Carlson’s segment.

“Truth is beginning to be revealed. Thank you Speaker McCarthy, Tucker Carlson and company for showing America the rest of the Jan. 6 story,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks during the 2022 FOX Nation Patriot Awards in Hollywood, Fla., on Nov. 17, 2022. Jason Koerner/Getty Images

More Footage to Be Shown

Carlson told viewers more footage would be shown on Tuesday evening.

“We have more and we’re going to show it to you tomorrow,” he said.

That would include an interview with a top Capitol police officer who was there. Carlson said the interview “raises a lot of pretty shocking questions about the Capitol Police response to January 6.”

A U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that Carlson’s team did not contact the agency before airing the segment.

The agency did not dispute a report describing a memorandum in which U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said Carlson’s program was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions about the January 6 attack.”

“The program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video. The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments,” Manger was quoted as saying.

The agency declined to share a copy of the memo.

“We cannot say much publicly because of the political nature of this whole thing,” the spokesperson said.