Explained: Why American TV host Tucker Carlson is facing backlash for 6 Jan Capitol riots show

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson is taking fire from both Democrats and Republicans after describing the 6 January riots as ‘mostly peaceful chaos’. Carlson, who was recently given 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, on Monday yet again mounted an impassionate defence of the 6 January rioters on his primetime show. Supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on 6 January, 2021, as Congress was certifying the outcome of the 2020 elections. Five people including a police officer died during or shortly after the riot and more than 140 police officers were injured. Then-vice president Mike Pence, members of Congress and staff ran for their lives amid the chaos. Let’s take a closer look at the controversy: What has Carlson claimed? Carlson on his Fox show on Monday distilled the thousands of hours of footage down to a 30-minute segment. While some footage showed some of the hand-to-hand combat as rioters laid siege to the building, broke windows and kicked down doors to gain entry, Carlson claimed the people that invaded the Capitol were ‘sightseers’ and not insurrectionists.

“The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress,” Carlson said, as per NBC.

“Instead it shows police escorting people through the building, including the now-infamous ‘QAnon Shaman.’” That of course refers to Jacob Chansley, one of the highest-profile rioters who was bare chested and wearing a horned hat. Chansley recently pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding and was sentenced to 41 months in prison. Carlson also highlighted the imagery of the invaders – some in combat gear and wielding flagpoles, merely milling about the gilded halls, taking pictures of the surroundings during pauses in the hours-long attack. “More than 44,000 hours of surveillance footage from in and around the Capitol have been withheld from the public, and once you see the video, you’ll understand why. Taken as a whole, the video does not support the claim that 6 January was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim,” Carlson alleged according to NBC. Carlson also aired footage of officer Brian Sicknick – who died of a stroke a day after fighting the mob. The footage showed Sicknick inside the Capitol picking up posters and politely ushering protesters out the door as evidence the officer was not killed in the crush. “They knew he was not murdered by the mob, but they claimed it anyway,” Carlson claimed, as per NBC. The medical examiner’s office in Washington determined in April 2021 that Sicknick died from natural causes after suffering two strokes near the base of his brain stem. The medical examiner also noted that Sicknick had engaged with rioters on 6 January and that “all that transpired played a role in his condition,” according to prosecutors. A New Jersey man who joined the attack on the US Capitol was in January sentenced than six years in prison for using pepper spray to assault Sicknick. Another man from West Virginia accused of assaulting Sicknick pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors each of which carries a maximum sentence of one year of imprisonment. The Sicknick family said in a statement that the footage simply showed that Brian bravely resumed his duties for a time after he had been attacked by a chemical agent. Ken Sicknick, the brother of the slain officer, said in an interview that the family is “at a loss” about how to fight back against a network with millions of viewers and the speaker of the House who gave access to the footage. Capitol Police officers who were defending against the mob have testified to their harrowing experiences — one said she was slipping in other people’s blood, while another told of being crushed in the mob — as they worked and ultimately failed to block the rioters from storming the Capitol.

The criminal cases stemming from the riot have laid bare the violence.

More than half of the roughly 1,000 people charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes have pleaded guilty, including more than 130 who pleaded guilty to felony crimes, according to an Associated Press tally. Officers have testified in court about being chased, hit, dragged and scared for their lives as they tried to defend the Capitol. One tweeted images late Monday of his cuts, stitches and swollen bruises from that day. [caption id=“attachment_10264101” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Supporters of US President Donald Trump, including member of the QAnon conspiracy group Jake Angeli, aka Yellowstone Wolf, had entered the US Capitol and went on a rampage. They used their fists and flagpoles to break through the windows of the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Biden’s victory. AP[/caption] Carlson further showed a small additional bit on Tuesday amid calls from critics to stop. Carlson is working to bend perceptions of the violent, grueling siege that played out for the world to see into a narrative favourable to Donald Trump. He is also reviving the falsehoods launched by Trump and his allies, including Republicans in Congress, that the attackers were peaceful protesters and acted like tourists, despite the well-documented carnage of the day and the deaths of five people in the riot and its aftermath. It’s part of an effort to reverse criminal charges for those being prosecuted in the attack, many of whom have pleaded guilty and said they regretted their actions on 6 January. Members of the extremist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups are facing rare charges of sedition for their roles at the front of the assault. Several members of the Oath Keepers have been found guilty of sedition. Hundreds of other rioters were charged only with misdemeanor offenses and many have served no prison time. Condemnation pours in Carlson is being condemned by Democrats and Senate Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Monday night Fox News episode from Carlson “one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on television.” The show’s portrayal was “an insult to every single police officer,” Schumer said, especially the family of Sicknick.

“Nonviolent? Ask his family.”

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Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said it was a mistake for Fox News to depict the footage as it did — at odds with the Capitol Police assessment and what he and others witnessed firsthand at the Capitol. McConnell quickly distanced himself from the endeavour, saying he wanted to “associate myself entirely” with the police chief’s views. McConnell said, “Clearly the chief of the Capitol Police correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on 6 January.” But McCarthy, who has shifted from blaming Trump for the riot to softening his criticism of the former president, stood by his decision, saying people can watch and “come up with their own conclusion.” Sky News quoted Senator Mitt Romney as saying: “You can’t hide the truth by selectively picking a few minutes out of tapes and saying this is what went on. It’s so absurd. It’s nonsense.” According to NBC, Republican Senator Thom Tillis blasted Carlson’s remarks as bullshit. Meanwhile, the White House on Wednesday said Carlson “is not credible”. We agree with the chief of the Capitol Police and the wide range of bipartisan lawmakers who have condemned this false depiction of the unprecedented, violent attack on our Constitution and the rule of law – which cost police officers their lives,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement. “We also agree with what Fox News’s own attorneys and executives have now repeatedly stressed in multiple courts of law: that Tucker Carlson is not credible,” Bates added.

Carlson responded to the outpouring of criticism by labelling his detractors ‘sociopaths’.

“The sociopaths turned out to be both Democrats and Republicans,” Carlson said, as per The Independent. He further claimed Attorney-General Merrick Garland was lying about the number of police officers killed during the Capitol riots. The undertaking by _Fox New_s comes as Trump is again running for president, and executives at the highest levels of the cable news giant have admitted in unrelated court proceedings that it spread the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election despite dismissing Trump’s assertions privately. The effort dovetails with the work of Republicans on Capitol Hill, led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who turned over the security footage to Fox. The Republicans are trying to claw back the findings of the House 6 January investigation, which painstakingly documented, with testimony and video evidence, how Trump rallied his supporters to head to the Capitol and “fight like hell” as Congress was certifying his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.