Tucker Carlson’s broadcast of an exclusive set of Jan. 6 security footage handed over by Speaker Kevin McCarthy went too far for even some Republicans.
On this week’s episode of The New Abnormal, hosts Andy Levy and Danielle Moodie discuss Fox News’ latest string of crises, including the latest court document dump from Dominion Voting Systems’ blockbuster $1.6 billion case against the network—and Carlson’s airing of the Jan. 6 tapes, where he was accused of cherry-picking visuals for the broadcast in an attempt to whitewash the deadly D.C. attack.
“I will say that it was a little nice,” Levy says of the surprise backlash from a bunch of Republicans, including Mitt Romney, John Thune, and Mitch McConnell. “It was good to see that what he did went too far, even for some Republicans in the Senate, if not for, apparently, a single one in the House.”
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Then, Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters, says he was “underwhelmed” by the footage, claiming Carlson’s purpose is “trying to create revisionism around the whole thing for his own political gain.”
“He had 40,000 hours of footage that his team had access to. He got maybe 10 minutes of material out of it and what he actually ends up showing is just so minor, little ticky-tack stuff that he’s trying to blow into a massive conspiracy to defraud the public. It’s pretty pathetic. I expected more from Tucker Carlson’s propaganda.”
As for whether the tepid response will change Carlson’s ratings? “I’m just too cynical to think that this is gonna change anything,” Levy says.
Plus! Former Republican, now Democratic strategist and columnist Kurt Bardella talks Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the dangers that he may face for handing over the footage.
“Kevin McCarthy’s basically provided Tucker with the blueprint to how to sack the Capitol. Yes. And when I look at what’s going on, all that I see is another effort to try to create a situation where there’s another insurrection. Only this time they’ll be more successful. This information will be used as a kind of recon intel building and gathering for those people who believe that they need to finish what they started to finish their story.”
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
