Republican members of Congress lambasted Tucker Carlson on Tuesday for his characterization of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection as “peaceful chaos,” citing police statements—and their own lived experiences—as evidence to the contrary.
“I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on January 6,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters on Tuesday, according to NBC News. “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 held up and referenced a letter written by Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who ripped into Carlson’s “offensive and misleading” portrayal of events during his Monday night broadcast. Carlson presented footage from that day, given to him exclusively by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), that he claimed “demolishes” the idea that Jan. 6 constituted a deadly insurrection and that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick’s death the next day resulted from its events, as his family has contended.
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“The program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video,” Manger wrote in the letter to his officers, which was first reported by Politico. “The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.” Manger also maintained that, had Sicknick not been assaulted by rioters while defending the Capitol, he “would not have died the next day.”
Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) was franker.
“I think it’s bullshit,” he said, according to NBC News. “I was here. I was down there and I saw maybe a few tourists, a few people who got caught up in things.”
If those who attacked the Capitol were merely visitors, he said, they “should’ve probably lined up at the visitors’ center and came in on an orderly basis.”
The sentiment was echoed by Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who noted to NBC News that “when you come into the chambers, when you start opening the members’ desks, when you stand up in their balcony—to somehow put that in the same category as, you know, permitted peaceful protest is just a lie.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), a frequent contrarian within the GOP ranks, told reporters it was “really sad to see Tucker Carlson go off the rails like that” and claimed the Fox News host was “joining a range of shock jocks that are disappointing America and feeding falsehoods.”
“The American people saw what happened on Jan. 6,” Romney said. Other Republican senators, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Mike Rounds (R-SD), also joined the pile-on.
“I think the Jan. 6 committee had a partisan view of things, and I’d like to know more about what happened that day and the day before,” Graham said, according to NBC News. “But I’m not interested in whitewashing the COVID lab theory, and I’m not interested in whitewashing Jan. 6.”
The criticism of Carlson extended to GOP House members. “I don't really have a problem with making it all public,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) told Politico. “But if your message is then to try and convince people that nothing bad happened, then it's just gonna make us look silly.”
“I don't think transparency is ever a mistake. I think Tucker's message doesn't make any sense,” he added.
Seven people died in connection with the riot, according to a bipartisan Senate report released in June 2021, while two D.C. police officers died by suicide months later. Nearly 140 police officers were injured that day, and the Department of Justice said more than 1,000 people have been arrested.
Carlson has promised to show more of the House surveillance footage on Tuesday, which he claimed on Monday was vetted by Capitol Police with only “minor” reservations. A Capitol Police source told NBC News that the agency only got advance notice of one of the clips aired on Monday and was not permitted to preview more.
