Tucker Carlson joined nationally syndicated radio host and co-founder of Blaze Media Glenn Beck on his radio show Wednesday to discuss the uncut and narrative-destabilizing footage of the Jan. 6 protests, which the Fox News host has been playing on his show.
TheBlaze previously noted that much of the footage that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) granted Carlson access to appears to contradict key claims made by members of the Jan. 6 committee and dutifully circulated by the liberal media.
Carlson noted that extra to distortions — such as the deceptive edits used to smear Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) as a coward or the addition of screaming sounds to videos originally recorded without audio — the Jan. 6 committee advanced lies wholly severed from the reality of what actually happened at the Capitol in order to shape a politically expedient narrative.
Dark forces and bold lies
“You called the January 6 committee members liars,” said Beck, referencing both Carlson’s commentary Monday and committee members’ promotion of the claim that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick had been killed as the result of injuries sustained that day.
“Do you … make the case that they’re liars? They didn’t just, you know, fib a bit and eat around the corners — that these are full-fledged liars?” asked Beck.
Carlson replied, “Well, that was the stunning part to me. I’ve been in Washington my whole life. And my dad worked for the government. So I had a kind of root-level trust in government. … My default setting is they’re not lying about anything. I never assumed that.”
“So I was shocked to learn that they were lying intentionally,” continued the Fox News host. “We have a very specific way of knowing that. … January 6 committee researchers looked at video. They bookmarked it. They left an electronic mark on the video they watched. So we know what they watched. And then we watched it.”
Carlson noted that “there is video of [Jacob] Chansley, of Ray Epps, and of Brian Sicknick, that we know they watched, that was not included in the report, that was never mentioned in the hearings. A year and a half, a thousand witnesses, 850-page report, and this video, which overturns the story they were telling, proves it was a lie.”
For Jacob Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” this lie proved life-changing.
Chansley’s former lawyer recently claimed he had not seen the newly released footage, which could have aided his client against federal charges. Whereas his former client had been depicted as the deranged leader of a violent mob, the footage played on Carlson’s show revealed that he was escorted around the Capitol by police without incident, reported Fox News Digital.
Chansley was ultimately charged with “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds” and sentenced to four years in prison.
There was evidently no saving Carlson’s childhood presumption of government officials’ forthrightness in the wake of reviewing the tapes of Chansley and others: “We know that they lied. And that just blew my mind.”
While Carlson had no trouble believing that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) would deal in lies, noting that he “is a force of darkness,” the cable host found it troubling that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), whom he’s known for decades, was also a purveyor of falsehoods.
“I just always assumed she disagrees on the issues with me. No, it turns out Liz Cheney is actually, affirmatively a liar,” said Carlson. “She knew information. She withheld it because it challenged the lie that she was telling to the public.”
Big lies
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently borrowed a phrased coined by Adolf Hitler to condemn Carlson and McCarthy by extension for showing narrative-challenging Jan. 6 footage, suggesting that it “enabled the Big Lie and has further eroded away at our precious democracy.”
Carlson suggested to Beck that this is mere projection; that the grand deception was played by those now apoplectic about his showcase of previously omitted or altered footage.
“This — this is an event that was a complex event [with] many facets. And they simplified it immediately into a good versus evil tale, as they do with everything. Partly because they lack nuance and imagination, but partly because this was a tool they were using for a purpose. It was a cudgel they were using to beat down their opponents and grab more power for themselves,” said Carlson.
“In effect, what it did was change the definition of terrorism, from something that exists in other countries and is aimed at us, to Republican voters, populist voters. … Bernie Sanders voters, Trump voters. Anybody who questions the legitimacy of the current power holders is now redefined not as a political opponent, but as a terrorist.”
TheBlaze recently reported that prior to Tucker Carlson’s initial exhibition of footage calling into question the claims and intentions of those on the January 6 committee, leftist journalist Chris Hedges penned an article condemning the Democratic establishment for “polarizing the country and shredding civil liberties.”
Hedges appeared to agree with Carlson, stating that “the judicial lynching against many of those who participated in the Jan. 6 events, a lynching that is mandating years in pretrial detention and prison for misdemeanors,” is part of an broader statist effort “corroding democratic institutions” and bringing the U.S. “closer towards tyranny.”
Carlson suggested that the false narrative constructed around Jan. 6 and the corresponding redefinition of terrorism have excused a weaponization of the FBI, the CIA, and other government agencies against the political opponents of the Washington establishment.
“Our own government has been harnessed as a political tool. It’s like the one thing you can’t allow,” said Carlson.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!