Schumer blasts McCarthy for giving Jan. 6 footage to Fox News

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday weighed in on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) move to hand footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol over to Fox News, calling it a “grave mistake” to give the footage to host Tucker Carlson. 

“The speaker is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11. The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected and its public release would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch and allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded,” Schumer said in a letter to Senate Democrats. 

Democrats have warned of security dangers in McCarthy’s decision to transfer the 41,000 hours of footage to Carlson in particular.

“Giving someone as disingenuous as Tucker Carlson exclusive access to this type of sensitive information is a grave mistake by Speaker McCarthy that will only embolden supporters of the Big Lie and weaken faith in our democracy,” Schumer said. 

The majority leader contended that “handpicking” Carlson to receive the footage “laid bare that this sham is simply about pandering to MAGA election deniers, not the truth,” and forecasted that the Fox News host will “select only clips that he can use to twist the facts to sow doubt of what happened” during the riot. 

Schumer accused McCarthy of agreeing to release the footage “to get the votes he needed from the MAGA wing of the House Republican Conference to become speaker” of the lower chamber, and emphasized that the Senate “strongly objects” to the material release. 

“The speaker— nor any elected official— does not have the right to jeopardize the safety of senators nor Senate and Capitol staff for their own political purposes. Period. Full stop,” Schumer wrote.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday slammed the move as an “egregious security beach.” 

House Homeland Security Committee ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson (Miss.) said “it’s hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were to be used irresponsibly.”

“If Speaker McCarthy has indeed granted Tucker Carlson — a Fox host who routinely spreads misinformation and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s poisonous propaganda — and his producers access to this sensitive footage, he owes the American people an explanation of why he has done so and what steps he has taken to address the significant security concerns at stake,” Thompson added.