On Wednesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) declared his intention to make public tens of thousands of hours of surveillance footage from the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. McCarthy stated that his goal was to promote transparency and give members of the public an opportunity to draw their own conclusions about what happened on that fateful day. Contrary to initial reports which estimated 14,000 hours of footage, McCarthy clarified that the actual number is 42,000 hours.
“I think it’s a better for transparency that anyone can make their own decision up And as we walk through these these are many more hours of tapes in the January 6 committee told us It’s not 14,000 it’s 42,000 hours.”
McCarthy expressed concern that some outlets had released certain exits and secure locations captured by the surveillance tapes, a potential security breach he wanted to avoid in his own releases. To this end, he is working with the Capitol Police to ensure all sensitive information is redacted before releasing any footage publicly. He also noted that Illinois Democrat Eric Swalwell had already posted one of these videos online two years ago without any issues being raised by the January 6th Committee formed by House representatives to investigate the attack.
“We asked the Capitol Police, ‘were there any concerns?’ They came back with one and we immediately did that. But it was interesting that one that they had a problem with, Eric Swalwell had [that one] up on the Internet for the last two years showing that part.”
Tucker Carlson has already begun to broadcast some of this footage on his show, providing viewers with a different narrative than what they have typically heard from many Democrats in recent weeks regarding the events of January 6th. As McCarthy works diligently to protect this sensitive material while still providing a window into what happened during those tumultuous hours at Capitol Hill, it will be interesting to see how much more clarity we can gain on one of the craziest days in recent history.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Breitbart News on Wednesday that he intends to fully release to the public the tens of thousands of hours of U.S. Capitol surveillance footage from January 6, 2021. pic.twitter.com/2hCDyaRebc
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 9, 2023