OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has honored her promise to release the 41,000 hours of surveillance footage filmed during the Jan. 6 incident at the US Capitol. In a plot twist, McCarthy did not release the tapes to the public — but to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to Axios.
Axios co-founder Mike Allen reported Monday morning: “Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.”
A few weeks ago, Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado announced that McCarthy had agreed to release more of the footage to the public.
Gaetz said McCarthy agreed to do so as part of a deal to win his and Boebert’s support, two Republicans in a group of about 20 that held back their support for days, denying him the speaker’s gavel.
“The American people deserve to know the truth about what happened on January 6th. We have demanded to see all the footage. Transparency is coming,” Gaetz said. “Every time from the JFK files, to 9/11, to now January 6th. It’s our own government, our own Department of Justice that seems to stand in the way of transparency.”
He also doubled down on his call to bring in more CSPAN cameras to the House floor.
“If we had cameras on the floor, my suspicion is we would have far better attendance during debates that impact the lives of our fellow Americans,” he said.
Boebert added on Twitter: “Speaker McCarthy says he’ll be releasing ALL the footage from January 6th. Considering all the public has seen are edited clips from a bunch of Democrats with an axe to grind, it sure will be nice to get some unbiased footage.”
A pair of House Republicans are also calling on Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi to testify about security failures that occurred at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The reason there wasn’t a proper security presence on that day goes right to the speaker’s staff and the speaker’s office. As you go back and look at the communications, there’s this pattern that develops where the Sergeant of Arms is meeting with Pelosi’s staff. Many of those meetings, Republican staff wasn’t allowed to be there, but they had this pattern where everything had to run through her office, her staff, before the Sergeant of Arms could make a decision,” Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said when speaking about House Republicans’ report detailing security failures at the Capitol that day.
Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls issued a similar response: “And Nancy Pelosi. You do have questions you need to answer … Nancy, we’ll get you, and we’ll fly you back from Italy once you’re the ambassador,” Nehls said as he joked about prior reports speculating that President Biden was considering offering the U.S. Ambassador to Italy post to Pelosi.
Former President Donald Trump’s last secretary of defense has taken several “geriatric” congressional leaders to task in a new book, taking particular aim at Pelosi.
Christopher Miller, writing in “Soldier Secretary: Warnings from the Battlefield & the Pentagon about America’s Most Dangerous Enemies,” called out Pelosi over her behavior during the Jan. 6 riot, according to an excerpt of his new book.
Miller wrote in his memoir that many lawmakers were “hyperventilating into the phone” that day while demanding to know if military forces were on the way to protect them.
“Do I blame a bunch of geriatrics for acting like a bunch of geriatrics? Of course not. But do I judge them for it? You’re damned right I do. Most of all, I resent that we are ruled by a bunch of geriatrics that ruthlessly and selfishly maintain their hold on power and refuse to develop the next generation of leaders,” he added.
“As soon as it was her a** on the line, Pelosi had been miraculously born again as a passionate, if less than altruistic, champion of law and order,” he wrote.
