Jan. 6 footage released by Tucker Carlson shows a different side to capitol riot

Reams of unreleased security footage from last year’s U.S. Capitol riot revealed a different side of the events than what the Jan. 6 Select Committee portrayed over the last two years.

More than 40,000 hours of footage were released exclusively to Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican.

Monday’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” program aired footage that shows most pro-Trump protesters who breached the Capitol were not a raucous “deadly” mob described by Democrats, but mostly a large group walking around the Capitol like tourists.

According to Mr. Carlson, the footage also showed that Democrats selectively edited footage to ridicule Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, as a coward and to smear Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Georgia Republican, of having aided the rioters.

John Strand of Los Angeles, a Jan. 6 defendant, was taken aback after seeing the footage.

“It’s always one thing to know, you’ve been lied to. It’s another thing to see it on camera in front of the world,” he told The Washington Times. “I think it’s really a historic level of blatant government deception and malice against innocent citizens. It’s shocking.”

Among the group shown Monday night was Jacob Chansley, best known as the “Q-Anon Shaman,” who was easily recognized for his fur-horned hat, bare chest and face paint.

First impressions of Mr. Chansley immediately following the riot was that he was a dangerous figure who made himself at home with his bullhorn inside the Senate chamber.

Prosecutors claimed that although Mr. Chansley was never accused of violence, he was the “public face of the Capitol riot” who went into the attack with a weapon, a flagpole topped with a spear tip. 

Prosecutors also alleged that he ignored repeated police orders to leave the Capitol.

Mr. Chansley, who faced decades in prison, agreed to a plea deal in November 2021, which entailed pleading guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Prior to his sentencing, he said he was not an insurrectionist and took issue with how the media portrayed him following the riot.

The new footage aired by Fox seems to back up Mr. Chansley’s assertion. He entered the Capitol through an open door on the Senate side with a group of people.

From there, he is seen being escorted towards the empty Senate chamber by the Capitol Police, who already had evacuated lawmakers and staff.

“Capitol Police officers took him to multiple entrances and even tried to open locked doors for him. We counted at least nine officers who are within touching distance of unarmed Jacob Chansley,” Mr. Carlson said.

“Not one of them even tried to slow him down. Chansley understood the Capitol Police were his allies. Video shows him giving thanks for them in a prayer on the floor of the Senate.”

Former West Virginia lawmaker Derrick Evans, who was charged and convicted by federal authorities after it was found he attended the Jan. 6 rally, said that while none of the information is necessarily new to him, most of the public has not followed the details of what happened that day.

“Jacob was never violent. He was never destructive as has been proven here on Tucker. And the man was facing decades in prison, and he took a plea deal to serve almost four years in prison,” he told The Times. “His life is ruined.”