On his show, Tucker Carlson released footage of the Capitol being stormed. Jacob Chansley disguised as a shaman can also be seen.
Frankfurt – This classification of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 unsurprisingly made waves. The US presenter Tucker Carlson, known for his conservative views, showed in his show on Monday and Tuesday evenings on the station Fox News exclusive recordings of the fateful events and commented on them in the spirit of former President Donald Trump, who he openly supported.
The talk show host called the 2020 presidential election won by challenger Joe Biden “a serious betrayal of American democracy”, from which the Democrats only wanted to distract with their committee of inquiry into the storming of the Capitol. “The footage shows no riots or riots in progress,” Carlson said. He also suggested, without providing any evidence, that federal agents might have instigated the violence.
Capitol storm footage: According to Carlson, police officers were “tour guides” for Trump fans
The scenes that have now been published also show how Jake Angeli, alias Jacob Chansley, who became famous worldwide because of his disguise as a shaman, walks through the deserted corridors accompanied by police officers. One of the uniformed men seems to want to prove to him that a door is locked before the Trump supporter is calmly led back to five other police officers.
“The recordings show that the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley, they helped him,” Carlson said. “They played his tour guide.” A total of nine police officers came into contact with Chansley, “but no one tried to stop him to stop”. The video also shows the now 33-year-old saying in the Senate Chamber, “Thank you Heavenly Father for inspiring the police officers to let us into this building.”
Storming the Capitol: Shaman Chansley is serving his sentence
In response to the footage, a Capitol Police spokesman told US Magazine Newsweek: “Prior to this video being made, a violent group of people fought their way through multiple police lines and illegally broke into the US Capitol, which was closed for a joint session of Congress.” The officer who followed Chansley into the Senate room was up found himself alone, but insisted on asking the intruders to leave the building before calling for reinforcements.
Chansley is currently serving a 41-month sentence. He had pleaded guilty to obstructing a congressional process. Five other charges were dropped. According to Carlson, he was punished more severely than many “violent criminals.”
Fox shows footage from the Capitol: Carlson known as a supporter of conspiracy theories
Like Carlson, Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that after his speech not far from Congress headquarters on the day the Biden victory was formally confirmed, only peaceful demonstrators were out and about. The footage now broadcast was passed to Carlson after a much-criticized decision by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It is tens of thousands of hours of material from which the Fox journalist had the contribution edited for his show, which has an average of three million viewers.
Carlson is known for spreading conspiracy theories and obviously false reports, for example about immigration, the corona pandemic or the Ukraine war. The 53-year-old agitates against minorities and adopts Russian propaganda.
Criticism of the Fox contribution to the Capitol storm: “Most shameful hour on TV”
It was criticized for the Trump supporter by the head of the Capitol Police. Tom Manger called the compilation misleading and complained in an internal memo that was available to US media: “The show appropriately selected the quieter moments of our 41,000 hours of video material.” Chuck Schumer was even clearer. The Democratic Senate Majority Leader called Carlson’s show “one of the most shameful hours we’ve ever seen on television.”
So far, so to be expected. But even Republicans took the post to court. Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, called it a “mistake” that the Capitol storming was portrayed in this way: “In my opinion, the Capitol Police Chief is correctly describing what most of us saw first hand on January 6th Republican Senator Mitt Romney called the compilation “absurd” and “nonsense”. Of course, there was also a lot of praise from the Republicans in the House of Representatives.
Video: Trump could face civil charges for storming the Capitol
Consequences of the storming of the Capitol: Inquiry committee recommends investigations against Trump
McCarthy, who had sabotaged his party’s cooperation with the House inquiry into the Capitol attack, again defended his disclosure of the video footage to Carlson. In the final report, Trump was assigned significant responsibility for the escalation. The panel also recommended criminal prosecution of the 76-year-old on several counts. However, since this is not legally binding, it remains to be seen whether the Ministry of Justice will investigate the entrepreneur.
During the riots on January 6, 2021, Trump incited his supporters, who had traveled from all over the country, in his speech with the often-refuted claim that massive voter fraud had robbed him of his second term in the presidential election. That day, five people lost their lives as a result of the riots, including a police officer.
Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch recently admitted that some of the network’s moderators deliberately spread lies about the 2020 presidential election. This is according to court documents showing affidavits by the media mogul in early February. It also shows that Carlson and other Fox hosts feared losing viewers’ favor if they didn’t support Trump’s narrative of voter fraud. Murdoch’s testimony is part of a defamation lawsuit brought against Fox News by voting machine manufacturer Dominion. (mg, dpa)
