“A candidate willing to condemn the consolidation of corporate power, the evils of environmental racism and ever-increasing income inequality ― and a Kennedy to boot!” he said on Sunday night. “What more could Democrats ask for?”
Kennedy even met with Trump at one point to discuss a job in his administration.
“So forgive me if I don’t buy Kennedy’s left-wing ‘credentials’ and I’m not surprised he went on Tucker Carlson’s White Power Hour on Fox to promote his Democratic presidential bid,” Hasan said.
Then, he noted that while Kennedy has support from figures on the right, many of the “people who know him best” have publicly denounced his views: his own family.
Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems settled their case on Tuesday for $787.5 million, abruptly ending one of the most highly anticipated defamation trials in decades before anyone took the stand. “The truth matters,” Dominion attorney Justin Nelsontold reporters outside the courtroom. “Lies have consequences.”
Opening arguments were supposed to begin around 1:30 in the afternoon, after the court took a lunch break. But roughly an hour later, proceedings had yet to resume. “All lawyers appear to be in their seats, but the judge and jury are not seated. Still no updates on why we’re delayed,” tweetedThe Guardian’s Kira Lerner, reporting from Wilmington, Delaware. “The scene in the courtroom: It is sweltering, everyone is up from their seats, going in and out of the room. Fox’s lead lawyer, Dan Webb, has taken several phone calls. Some people are standing, all are talking, others gesticulating,” the Times’ Jim Rutenbergreported. Then one hour became two, and just before 4:00, Judge Eric Davis, took the bench and brought the jurors back in the room. “The parties have resolved the case,” he said.
The end of the Fox-Dominion standoff comes as swaths of reporters had descended this week upon Wilmington, Delaware, and variousoutlets—including this one—prepared special coverage for what was expected to be a six-week-long trial. Top Fox figures like hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, as well as Fox Corp chairman Rupert Murdochhimself, were expected to take the stand, but no longer.
“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees, and the customers that we serve,” CEO John Poulossaid at the presser outside the courtroom. “Nothing can ever make up for that. Throughout this process, we have sought accountability, and believe the evidence brought to light through this case underscores the consequences of spreading lies. Truthful reporting in the media is essential to our democracy.”
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false,” Fox said in a statement. “This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”
Dominion has been steeped in a legal fight with Fox since 2021, when the election-technology company sued the network for $1.6 billion over its 2020 election coverage. Dominion claimed the network amplified election lies pushed by Donald Trump and his allies and knowingly promoted false claims about the company’s role in the election for the sake of juicing ratings and profit. Fox argued its coverage was protected by free speech and press freedom rights, and that it was neutrally reporting on newsworthy claims by a sitting president. (It should be noted that Judge Davis, the Delaware Superior Court judge who was presiding over the case, ruled last week that Fox News could not argue that it broadcast false information about Dominion on the basis of newsworthiness. “Just because someone is newsworthy doesn’t mean you can defame someone,” said Davis.)
While the settlement means there will be no such spectacle, the discovery process leading up to this moment has already provided an unprecedented look inside Fox News. Through a deluge of internal communications and private text messages Dominion unveiled during the pretrial process, the public got to see top executives, producers, and stars mocking the unfounded claims and unreliable sources in Trumpworld. “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” Carlson told host Laura Ingraham of the conspiracy-peddling Trump lawyer. “Our viewers are good people and they believe it.” In another filing released as part of the suit, Murdoch is seen admitting that hosts Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, and Lou Dobbs “endorsed” Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” Murdoch said at one point in his deposition.
Davis appeared to repeatedly clash with Fox during the pretrial hearings. At one point last week he told a Fox News attorney that his team had a “credibility problem” upon learning that Fox has delayed the disclosure of Murdoch’s full role at Fox News, a technicality that prevented Dominion from getting access to documents they otherwise would have during the discovery process. It was also during the pretrial hearings that Davis sanctioned Fox News for withholding evidence. Dominion lawyers asserted they’d found out about other documents and material that they should have received during discovery but didn’t. The judge said he would likely start an investigation into the matter.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with additional developments.
Washington — A high-stakes court fight between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News is set to kick off in Delaware superior court on Tuesday, as the voting technology company presses its claim before a jury that Fox knowingly aired false information about its voting machines and software in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
Jury selection started Thursday and was set to resume before opening statements Monday, but the start of the trial was delayed until Tuesday morning, the judge presiding over the case, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, said in a statement Sunday. The trial is predicted to last up to six weeks, during which Dominion has the burden of proving to the jury that Fox acted with actual malice in broadcasting the unfounded allegations about Dominion.
To show actual malice, the legal standard established by the Supreme Court for defamation cases, a public figure — Dominion in this case — must prove the publisher knew the offending statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
If the jury finds Fox News acted with actual malice, it will also determine whether Dominion is entitled to damages and if so, how much should be awarded.
The network’s top stars and top executives from Fox Corporation, Fox News’ parent company, are expected to feature prominently and could testify in-person during the trial.
Here are the key figures to know.
Fox Corporation
FILE — Lachlan Murdoch, left, and Rupert Murdoch attend the TIME 100 Gala, celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world, at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, Time Warner Center on Tuesday, April 21, 2015, in New York.
(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman and co-chairman and CEO, respectively
Dominion alleges that Fox Corporation’s top officers, including Murdoch, knew that the claims about Dominion were false, and that the evidence demonstrates Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch had editorial responsibility.
In their complaint, the company says that the Murdoch family “plays a central and public role in the managing and oversight of Fox News.”
file: Fox Corporation chief legal and policy officer Viet Dinh.
Fox handout photo
Viet Dinh, chief legal officer and policy officer
Dominion claims that like the Murdochs, Viet Dinh knew the accusations about Dominion were false. He said in deposition testimony that he “sometimes” consults with shows before a particular guest appears because of legal concerns.
File: White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah takes questions from reporters during a press briefing at the White House on Monday, March 26, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Raj Shah, senior vice president
According to messages made public as part of the discovery process, Shah repeatedly indicated he knew the claims about Dominion were outlandish. Shah also led a “brand team” and notified senior leaders from Fox News and Fox Corporation that then-host Neil Cavuto’s pushback to the White House’s voter fraud claims posed a “brand threat.”
FILE: House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, speaks to members of the media following a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018.
.Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Paul Ryan, former House speaker and Fox Corporation board member
Ryan joined Fox Corporation’s board in 2019 and he sent a message to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch on Dec. 6, 2020, urging “solid pushback” to Trump’s calls for an alternate slate of presidential electors, according to documents made public as part of the case.
“I think we are entering a truly bizarre phase of this where he has actually convinced himself of this farce and will do more bizarre things to delegitimize the election,” Ryan told the Murdochs of Trump. “I see this as a key inflection point for Fox, where the right thing and the smart business thing do line up nicely.”
Fox News Network
File: Fox News CEO, Suzanne Scott, attends the new All-American Christmas Tree lighting outside News Corporation at Fox Square on December 9, 2021 in New York City.
Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images
Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News
Dominion alleged in its lawsuit that Scott and executives were responsible for airing broadcasts that included the 20 statements the company alleges were defamatory. In court filings, Dominion said Scott elevated concerns about the audience’s backlash to its Arizona call for Joe Biden, and told Lachlan Murdoch in a text that the Arizona call “was damaging but we will highlight our stars and plant flags letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them.”
Jay Wallace, president and executive editor of Fox News Media
Wallace is among the executives who Dominion says was responsible for airing the challenged broadcasts. He spoke with Dominion’s representative on Nov. 17, 2020, and was told of the facts that refuted Fox’s claims, according to the company.
David Clark, senior vice president for weekend news and programming
Messages made public show that Clark received Dominion’s “Setting the Record Straight” emails and told a colleague on Nov. 14 that “I have it tattooed on my body at this point.” He was among the executives who participated in the editorial process and said he oversaw the bulk of programming on the weekends.
Meade Cooper, vice president of prime-time programming
Cooper oversees primetime show content, including Hannity’s, Carlson’s and Pirro’s shows.
Ron Mitchell, senior vice president of prime time programming and analytics
Mitchell advised Carlson’s, Hannity’s and Laura Ingraham’s primetime shows and said during deposition testimony that some of the claims about Dominion “didn’t sound credible to me.”
Lauren Petterson, president of Fox Business
Dominion alleges in court papers that Petterson “had decision-making authority” over what content could appear on Fox Business’s air.
Tom Lowell, executive vice president and managing editor of news
Lowell testified during a deposition that Fox does not “have evidence” to support the baseless allegations about Dominion.
Gary Schreier, senior vice president of programming for Fox Business Network
Schreier was Petterson’s second-in-command and oversaw Dobbs’ show. In a Dec. 13, 2020, email, he warned Dobbs’ producer not to book Sidney Powell and on Jan. 19, 2021, said “We cannot go near dominion. Not the same area code.”
Irena Briganti, senior executive vice president for corporate communications
Briganti wrote the evening that Mr. Biden was declared the winner of the election that “our viewers left this week after AZ,” and according to Dominion’s filings, said that Fox “Gave Powell & Giuliani platform with reach—all true they said crazy things.”
Bill Sammon, former senior vice president and managing editor of Fox’s Washington Bureau
Sammon received pushback from Trump’s team, including then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, after the network called Arizona for Mr. Biden. He exchanged text messages with Chris Stirewalt on Dec. 2, 2020, expressing concern about the claims that Fox was broadcasting.
“More than 20 minutes into our flagship evening news broadcast and we’re still focused solely on supposed election fraud — a month after the election,” he wrote. “It’s remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things.”
He was let go by Fox News after the election.
Chris Stirewalt, former Fox News political editor, during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Monday, June 13, 2022.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Chris Stirewalt, former politics editor
Stirewalt was the politics editor and member of the Decision Desk, led by Arnon Mishkin. Mishkin made Fox News’ Arizona call, which projected Mr. Biden would win the state. In a deposition, Stirewalt said that “no reasonable person” would have thought allegations Dominion rigged the election were true.
In the Dec. 2, 2020, exchange with Sammon, Stirewalt wrote, “What I see us doing is losing the silent majority of viewers as we chase the nuts off a cliff.” Like Sammon, he, too, is no longer with the network.
The Hosts
Tucker Carlson, host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio on March 2, 2017, in New York.
Richard Drew / AP
Tucker Carlson
Carlson hosts the 8 p.m. show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” and his Jan. 26, 2021, broadcast is among the 20 that included falsehoods about Dominion said were defamatory. That show featured Mike Lindell as a guest, and he claimed he found “machine fraud.”
File: Sean Hannity, host at Fox News, broadcasts from the Republican National Convention at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Sean Hannity
Hannity is the host of the eponymous “Hannity,” airing at 9 p.m. His Nov. 30, 2020, broadcast contained challenged statements from Sidney Powell, who peddled baseless claims Dominion’s voting machines flipped votes from Trump to Mr. Biden.
Laura Ingraham seen speaking during the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD, on February 28, 2019.
Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Laura Ingraham
Host of the 10 p.m. show “The Ingraham Angle,” Ingraham exchanged messages with Carlson and Hannity calling Powell “a bit nuts,” and the three lamented about the backlash Fox News was receiving from viewers after its Arizona call.
File: Judge Jeanine Pirro of FOX News Network makes remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, February 23, 2017.
MIKE THEILER/AFP/Getty Images
Jeanine Pirro
Pirro hosted the show “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on Fox News until January 2022, when she became a permanent co-host for its show “The Five.” But two of Pirro’s broadcasts on her earlier show, on Nov. 14, 2020, and Nov. 21, 2020, contained statements that Dominion alleges were defamatory.
File: Host Maria Bartiromo with Lee Zeldin, former New York gubernatorial candidate as he visits “Mornings With Maria” at Fox Business Network Studios on Feb. 08, 2023, New York.
Roy Rochlin / Getty Images
Maria Bartiromo
Bartiromo’s show “Sunday Morning Futures” airs weekly on Fox News, and Dominion has identified her Nov. 8, 2020, broadcast as containing information about it that the network allegedly knew to be false.
That episode featured Sidney Powell claiming without evidence that Dominion used an algorithm to manipulate vote counts.
Before the interview, Powell sent Bartiromo an email with the subject line “Election Fraud Info,” which Powell received from a Minnesota woman claiming Dominion’s software flipped votes from Trump to Biden. The email also claimed the late Justice Antonin Scalia was killed in a “human hunting expedition,” and she receives messages from “the wind.”
File: Lou Dobbs interviews Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during “Lou Dobbs Tonight” at Fox Business Network Studios on Sept. 23, 2019 in New York City.
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Lou Dobbs
Dobbs, who is no longer with the company, hosted the show “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” airing on Fox Business Network. Dominion points to eight of Dobbs’ broadcasts that it said contained false information about it, as well as four of his tweets.
Will Cain
Cain co-hosts Fox & Friends Weekend, and on its Dec. 12, 2020, show, Giuliani was a guest and made accusations about Dominion’s voting machines. The company said that as of that date, the public record “clearly demonstrates” that those claims were false.
File: Bret Baier of “Special Report with Bret Baier” interrviews Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Jan. 05, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
Paul Morigi / Getty Images
Bret Baier
Baier is the chief political correspondent for Fox News and encouraged a fact-check of voter fraud allegations posted on social media by Bartiromo to Sammon, writing “We have to prevent this stuff. … We need to fact check.”
He also wrote in a text message on Nov. 5, made public in the case, that “there is NO evidence of fraud. None. Allegations—stories. Twitter. Bulls**t.”
Eric Shawn
Another Fox host, he was the subject of an email about a fact-check he did about voter fraud claims. In the email, Scott told Cooper, “This has to stop now. … This is bad business and there is clearly a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows. The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. Bad for business.”
The Producers
Alex Hooper, senior producer, Lou Dobbs Tonight
Jerry Andrews, executive producer, Justice with Jeanine
Abby Grossberg, former senior booking producer for “Sunday Morning Futures”
The three producers are identified as “responsible employees” who knew the statements airing on their respective broadcasts were “false or recklessly disregarded the truth.”
Grossberg, in particular, has emerged as a figure whose importance in Dominion’s case appears to be growing. She is a former employee of CBS News.
Grossberg filed a separate lawsuit against Fox News, Scott and its lawyers in Delaware state court alleging she was misleadingly coached and manipulated to deliver incomplete answers during a deposition taken as part of Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox.
In court filings Tuesday, she said Fox News had recordings, through an app called Otter, of separate conversations Bartiromo had with Giuliani and Powell that showed they had no evidence to support claims they amplified about Dominion on Fox’s air.
Fox turned over the recordings to Dominion last week, and during a pretrial conference Wednesday, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who is overseeing the trial, sanctioned Fox’s attorneys for withholding evidence.
The Guests
File: Rudolph Giuliani, attorney for President Donald Trump, conducts a news conference at the Republican National Committee on lawsuits regarding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election on Thursday, November 19, 2020.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Sidney Powell
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Lindell
The three appeared as guests of Carson, Hannity, Pirro, Bartiromo and Dobbs, where they raised the unfounded accusations about Dominion and its role in the 2020 presidential election. Giuliani and Powell were the subject of internal messages from Fox’s primetime hosts, who pushed back among themselves about the validity of the allegations.
Tucker Carlson called Donald Trump a “demonic force,” admitted that he hated him “passionately” and said he couldn’t wait for the day when he could ignore the former president in private text messages.
Now, the Fox News host is singing a very different tune after a softball interview with Trump in which he hailed the former president as “moderate, sensible and wise.”
Carlson’s critics on Twitter were quick to remind him of what he said in private messages released as part of the Dominion lawsuit against the right-wing network… and taunt him for such a brazen turnaround:
The Fox News host was ridiculed on Twitter Monday after he pretty much summed himself up during a rant about California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
“You’ll say literally anything,” Carlson said of Newsom. “Words have no connection to reality. There’s no expectation that you’re describing something real. You’re merely using words as a tool to gain power. That’s terrifying.”
“It’s dishonest to its core,” added Carlson, the disinformation-slinging host who Fox News’ own lawyers have argued “any reasonable viewer” should take with a grain of salt.
Carlson was attacking the Democrat over a wide-ranging interview he gave to MSNBC, during which he discussed, among other subjects, gun reform and attacks on LGBTQ+ people and abortion rights.
Carlson made the comment after airing an excerpt from the interview. In it, Newsom criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for signing a law allowing Floridians to carry a concealed gun without a permit, days after a mass shooting at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, last month.
Fox News is being sued for $1.6 billion by Dominion Voting Systems. The company accuses the network and its top hosts of giving airtime to Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy lies, including that its voting machines were rigged, despite knowing them to be false.
In private texts revealed in Dominion court filings, Fox News hosts and executives effectively lamented that honesty about the 2020 election was driving viewers away. That belief appeared to prompt some hosts ― including Carlson ― to push vastly different views on air to the ones they voiced privately. Carlson, for example, said privately that he hated Trump.
That, according to Twitter users, sounds a lot like saying “literally anything” to “gain power.”
A Fox News producer on Monday filed a pair of explosive lawsuits against the right-wing talk channel, alleging that the network’s lawyers coerced her into providing misleading testimony in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation case against the company.
The lawsuits filed by Abby Grossberg, who worked as a senior booking producer for Maria Bartiromo and most recently head of booking for Tucker Carlson, accused Fox’s legal team of having engaged in wrongful conduct as it prepared her for a pre-trial deposition in the election technology company’s case.
The lawsuits from Grossberg, who has since been placed on administrative leave by Fox, were filed in Delaware Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“Fox News Attorneys acted as agents and at the behest of Fox News to misleadingly coach, manipulate, and coerce Ms. Grossberg to deliver shaded and/or incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which answers were clearly to her reputational detriment but greatly benefitted Fox News,” the lawsuit filed in Delaware stated.
The Delaware lawsuit alleged that the “concerted efforts and actions” from Fox’s legal team ultimately caused Grossberg to testify in a way that portrayed the facts “in a false light” in order to “shift culpability” away from senior Fox News executives and “away from Fox Corporation.”
That matter is important because Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has asked to be dropped as a party in Dominion’s lawsuit by arguing that it does not play a big role in coverage decisions at the network.
Dominion has alleged in its lawsuit against Fox Corporation and Fox News that during the 2020 election the right-wing network “recklessly disregarded the truth” and pushed various pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the election technology company because “the lies were good for Fox’s business.” Fox News has strongly disputed Dominion’s allegations.
A Fox News spokesperson responded to Grossberg’s lawsuits in a statement that said, “Fox News Media engaged an independent outside counsel to immediately investigate the concerns raised by Ms. Grossberg, which were made following a critical performance review. We will vigorously defend these claims.”
Fox News also on Monday filed suit against Grossberg, seeking a restraining order to prevent her from divulging privileged information that it said would cause the network to “suffer immediate irreparable harm.” A judge has not yet ruled on Fox’s request.
In a phone interview Monday night, Grossberg and her attorney, Gerry Filippatos, disputed Fox News’ assertion the complaints only came after a critical performance review.
“It’s another example of Fox News not only shying away from the truth, but attempting to bury the truth,” Filippatos told CNN.
“Fox just does not care,” Grossberg added. “It summarizes everything perfectly. They don’t care about their employees … and they don’t care about their viewers.”
In her lawsuits, Grossberg also made a number of eye-popping allegations about the workplace environment at Fox News, accusing the network of rampant sexism.
Grossberg, who indicated she was passed over for a top job on Bartiromo’s show because the network preferred it be filled by a male, said Fox News executives referred to the “Sunday Mornings Futures” host as a “crazy b**ch” and “menopausal.”
When she began work on Carlson’s show, Grossberg said the environment was horrific. On her first day, she said she learned the show’s workspace was decorated with large photos of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage.”
“Grossberg was mortified by what she was witnessing and began to experience a sinking feeling in her stomach as it became apparent how pervasive the misogyny and drive to embarrass and objectify women was among the male staff at [‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’],” the lawsuit filed in New York said.
The lawsuit continued to describe a culture at Carlson’s program in which women were subjected to crude terms and in which jokes about Jewish people were made out in the open. Grossberg named Carlson and members of his staff in the lawsuit filed in New York.
Filippatos said that Grossberg has “ample documentary evidence in all forms to support a broad swath” of the allegations made in the lawsuits.
Grossberg told CNN that she filed her lawsuit in hopes that it will spur change at the network and because she believed it “was the only step” she had to regain her pride and save her career. Grossberg said she wanted to “expose the lies and deceit” that she “witnessed for years” on two of Fox News’ biggest shows.
“I’ve covered many stories while I have been there,” Grossberg told CNN. “Dominion is just a small portion. And I’ve witnessed it from the very beginning until my last day of work last week.”
“It’s constant,” she added. “Ratings are very important to the shows, to the network, and to the hosts. It’s a business and that’s what drives coverage.”
House Republican leadership did not let the US Capitol Police force review most clips of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol that were given to Fox News host Tucker Carlson and made public, USCP attorney Tad DiBiase said Friday.
DiBiase told a federal judge he reviewed just one clip – which was previously available for public viewing – before Carlson aired dozens of clips that he had received from House Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“The other approximately 40 clips, which were not from the Sensitive List, were never shown to me nor anyone else from the Capitol Police,” DiBiase wrote in a sworn affidavit submitted in an alleged Capitol rioter’s criminal case.
Carlson has aired carefully selected clips to portray the pro-Trump mob as peaceful patriots. The Fox News host falsely claimed that the footage provided “conclusive” evidence that Democrats and the House select committee that investigated January 6 lied to Americans about the day’s events.
According to the Justice Department, 140 officers were assaulted at the Capitol that day, including 60 Metropolitan Police officers and 80 US Capitol Police officers.
DiBiase said Friday that his team gave the Republicans on the Committee on House Administration access to their CCTV footage from January 6, 2021, but weren’t asked ahead of time if the clips could then be shared with Fox News.
The Capitol Police have expressed concern for months that some of the CCTV footage is sensitive, and, if shared publicly, could be a security risk. But McCarthy hasn’t backed off his decision, telling CNN on Friday that the police force only raised objection to one clip and that it was addressed.
“We went to Capitol Police. We asked them, ‘Do you have any concerns with any of these, with any time period?’ They brought up one, which was only the one they had concerns with. We changed it,” McCarthy said without offering further details.
Carlson, for his part, has said he takes security concerns “seriously” and previously claimed that he had Capitol Police review the footage before airing it. Multiple sources on Capitol Hill, however, previously told CNN that Carlson’s show provided only one clip to review and not the others.
US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said earlier this month that Carlson selected favorable clips to mislead his audience about the attack. Manger called Carlson’s depictions of the events “offensive.”
“The program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video,” Manger wrote in an internal department memo obtained by CNN. “The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.”
Manger added that Carlson’s show didn’t reach out to the police department “to provide accurate context.”
Russia might be bogged down in its vicious onslaught on Ukraine, but President Vladimir Putin is winning big elsewhere – in the Republican presidential primary.
The two highest-polling potential GOP nominees – former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – are making clear that if they make it to the White House, Ukraine’s lifeline of US weapons and ammunition would be in danger and the war could end on Putin’s terms. Their stands underscore rising antipathy among grassroots conservatives to the war and President Joe Biden’s marshaling of the West to bankroll Kyiv’s resistance to Putin’s unprovoked invasion.
“The death and destruction must end now!” Trump wrote in replies to a questionnaire from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson about the war and US involvement. DeSantis, answering the same questions, countered with his most unequivocal signal yet that he’d downgrade US help for Ukraine if he wins the presidency. “We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland,” he wrote.
Trump’s warnings that only he can stop World War III and DeSantis’ main argument that saving Ukraine is not a core US national security interest will likely gain even more traction following one of the most alarming moments yet in the war on Tuesday. The apparent downing of a US drone by a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea was a step closer to the scenario that everyone has dreaded since the war erupted a year ago – a direct clash between US and Russian forces.
“This incident should serve as a wake-up call to isolationists in the United States that it is in our national interest to treat Putin as the threat he truly is,” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said in a Tuesday statement that read as an implicit rebuke of his party’s leading presidential hopefuls. Others, like Texas Sen. John Cornyn, said DeSantis’ position “raises questions.”
But the reproach from some senior Senate Republicans may not matter much in today’s GOP. As they fight to outdo one another’s skepticism of Western help for Ukraine, Trump and DeSantis are showing how “America First” Republicans have transformed a party that was led by President Ronald Reagan to victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Their influence is sure to deepen the split in the US House between traditional GOP hawks and followers of the ex-president that is already threatening future aid to Ukraine – even before the 2024 presidential election.
That divide is playing out in the early exchanges of the GOP primary race as other candidates, including ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, warn that failing to stop Putin now could lead to disastrous confrontations later. Haley staked out a far more hawkish position on Ukraine in a statement on Tuesday. The former South Carolina governor warned that Russia’s goal was to wipe Ukraine off the map, and that if Kyiv “stopped fighting, Ukraine would no longer exist, and other countries would legitimately fear they would be next.”
But her position might help explain why she’s trailing in early polls of the race. A new CNN/SSRS poll on Tuesday, for instance, found that 80% of Republicans or Republican-leaning independents thought it was important that the GOP nominee for president believe the US “should not be involved in the war between Russia and Ukraine.”
GOP political calculations will have a profound geopolitical impact.
Rising Republican skepticism of US aid to Ukraine presents President Volodymyr Zelensky with the most critical test yet of his international campaign for the weapons and ammunition Ukraine needs to survive. It will also bolster Putin’s apparent belief that he can outlast Western resolve and eventually crush Ukrainian resistance. The possibility that a Republican successor in the White House could abandon Ukraine will also become a bigger issue for Biden, increasing the pressure on him to shore up support among Americans for his policy in Ukraine, which polls show has ebbed a bit in recent months.
If the war is still going on next year, the 2024 election could become a forum for a wide-ranging debate that will ask the American people to decide between twin impulses that have often divided the nation throughout its history – does the US have a duty to stand up for freedom and democracy anywhere, or should it indulge its more isolationist tendencies?
Unless Trump or DeSantis fade in the coming months, Ukraine’s fate could effectively be on the ballot in primary races next year and in the November general election. And Biden’s vow to stick with Zelensky “for as long as it takes” could have an expiration date of January 20, 2025 – the next presidential inauguration.
The rhetoric on Russia coming from the biggest 2024 names caused alarm on Capitol Hill, where many top Republican House committee chairman and senior senators are pressing Biden to do more to support Ukraine – including with the dispatch of F-16 fighter jets.
Speaking on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program, Sen. Marco Rubio seemed to rebuke his state’s governor – arguing the US does have a national security interest in Ukraine and wondering whether DeSantis’ inexperience was a factor. “I don’t know what he’s trying to do or what the goal is. Obviously, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as governor, so I’m not sure,” Rubio said.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who’s already backed Trump’s 2024 White House bid, warned that those who said Ukraine didn’t matter were also effectively saying the same of war crimes.
“We’re not invading Russia, we’re trying to expel the Russians from Ukraine, and no Americans are dying, and it is in our national interest to get this right,” Graham told CNN’s Manu Raju.
Still, while Rubio and Graham represent traditional GOP foreign policy orthodoxy, their comments may only help DeSantis and Trump make their points since many pro-Trump voters often see them as part of a neo-conservative bloc in the party that led the US into years of war in the Middle East.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, also said he disagreed with DeSantis, but he acknowledged that his own stance may not reflect where his party is now. “There are probably going to be other candidates in ’24 on our side who may share that view, and certainly it’s held by Republicans around the country,” Thune said of DeSantis’ perspective.
The most noteworthy replies to Carlson’s questionnaire came from DeSantis, who has not yet officially launched a campaign, but was revealed by Tuesday’s CNN/SSRS poll to be Trump’s most threatening potential rival. The governor is encroaching on the ex-president’s ideological turf, and after speaking out more generally against current US policy in recent weeks, has now adopted a position apparently designed to hedge against the ex-president’s attacks on the issue.
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party – becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said.
In response to a question about whether the US should support “regime change” in Russia, the Florida governor appeared to suggest the US is engaged in such a policy, warning that any replacement for Putin might prove “even more ruthless.” There is no indication that the US government is engaged in any attempt to topple Putin. DeSantis did not specifically say he would halt US military aid to Ukraine, leaving himself some political leeway if he were elected president. There remains some doubt about his true beliefs since CNN’s KFile has reported that as a member of Congress he called for the US to send lethal aid to Ukraine.
But his most recent comments were remarkable in echoing Putin’s talking points. By referring to a “territorial dispute,” the governor minimized Russia’s unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation that Putin insists has no right to exist. His answer on regime change also bolsters a yearslong claim by the Russian leader that Washington is trying to drive him from power, and may be highlighted by the propagandists in Moscow’s official media.
DeSantis’ responses to Carlson on the war also underscore how the normal relationship between political leaders and media commentators has been inverted by Fox and its star anchor. Carlson warmly approved of DeSantis’ answers, which appeared calculated to win his approval. This put Carlson in the amazing position of potentially curating what could end up being US foreign policy on one of the most critical questions since the end of the Cold War.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently performed a similar genuflection, providing Carlson with exclusive access to US Capitol surveillance tapes from the January 6, 2021, insurrection, which the Fox anchor used to undermine the truth about the most serious attack on US democracy of the modern era.
In his responses to Carlson, Trump repeated his unprovable claim that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he were president. He demanded an end to the fighting and peace talks that would effectively vindicate the invasion by Putin, to whom he often fawned when he was in the Oval Office. “The President must meet with each side, then both sides together, and quickly work out a deal. This can be easily done if conducted by the right President,” Trump said. “Both sides are weary and ready to make a deal,” he added, in a comment that does not reflect the reality of the war.
Given that her views contradict Carlson’s, Haley publicly released her answers on Ukraine – and also accused DeSantis of copying Trump’s positions.
“The Russian government is a powerful dictatorship that makes no secret of its hatred of America. Unlike other anti-American regimes, it is attempting to brutally expand by force into a neighboring pro-American country,” she wrote. “It also regularly threatens other American allies. America is far better off with a Ukrainian victory than a Russian victory.”
Haley’s statement epitomized the divisions on the war that will animate Republican primary debates that begin later this year – and that will be closely watched in both Kyiv and Moscow. She wouldn’t be Putin’s preferred candidate.
A conservative group has highlighted Tucker Carlson’s affinity for spreading Russian propaganda in a new video.
The Republican Accountability Project put Carlson on blast in a new video, showing 96 seconds of the Fox News host “parroting Putin”:
Carlson has repeatedly sided with Russia over his own government, criticizing the U.S. for providing ongoing support to Ukraine and rationalizing Russia’s aggression. His views have taken root with the Republican base and some members of Congress, so much so that during a recent visit with Republicans in Washington to lobby for aid to Ukraine, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “amazed and horrified by how many people are frightened of a guy called Tucker Carlson.”
The Republican Accountability Project, a never-Trump PAC, targets members of the GOP who undermined democracy by supporting former President Donald Trump, his lies about the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack he incited at the U.S. Capitol.
“Editors do amazing things,” he said. “Editors can turn 44,000 hours of violent insurrection footage into a respectful sightseeing tour of the Capitol. Their work is under-appreciated.”
In reality, the mob that assaulted the Capitol was seeking to stop the certification of the election, overturn the results and keep Donald Trump in power despite the fact that he lost.
The former speaker of the House discussed Silicon Valley Bank, January 6 revisionist history, the coming election, and more in a South by Southwest interview focused on money and greed.
Travis P Ball / Getty for SXSW
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s message at the annual South by Southwest festival could be summarized in three words: Follow the money.
Pelosi uttered that specific phrase—and similar versions of it—several times during her interview with Evan Smith, a contributing writer at The Atlantic, as part of the magazine’s Future of Democracy summit this morning in Austin, Texas.
Pelosi, who represents California’s 11th congressional district, began by discussing the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the anxiety sweeping through not only her home district but the tech and financial industries as a whole. “I don’t think there’s any appetite in this country for bailing out a bank,” she said. “What we would hope to see by tomorrow morning is for some other bank to buy the bank.” She said there were multiple potential buyers, but she couldn’t reveal their names. Pelosi pointed out that former President Donald Trump had authorized the reduction of certain Dodd-Frank protections that had been instituted following the 2008 financial crash: “If they were still in place and the bank had to honor them, this might have been avoided,” she offered. Rather than repeating our recent history and using taxpayer money to rescue the failed institution, Pelosi said the focus should be on protecting depositors and small businesses at risk of closing or not making payroll. “We do not want contagion,” she said.
Pelosi pointed to money—the reckless use and exploitation of it—as the root of virtually every problem facing America and the world today. Whether the potential fallout of a failed bank like SVB or the rise of autocracy around the world, it all comes down to money, money, money, and little else. “Money buying Russian oil is paying for the assault on democracy in Ukraine,” Pelosi said. She accused China of “buying” votes from smaller countries at the United Nations, and said the U.S. must join with the European Union “in using the leverage of this big market to have the playing field be more even.”
Pelosi refused to say Trump’s name even once during her one-hour session, referring to the 45th president instead by “What’s his name” under her breath. Still, she condemned the extremism and anarchy that had overtaken American politics since Trump began his rise nearly eight years ago. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, who was struck in the head with a hammer by a home invader last fall, joined her on today’s trip to Texas, which was unusual, given that he’s still recovering from the attack. “I was the target,” she said. “He paid the price.”
She spoke of the January 6 insurrection with sadness and disgust—anarchists “making poo-poo on the floor of the Capitol”—and acknowledged the rioters’ goal to put a bullet in her head that day. Her successor, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, recently gave a trove of January 6 material to Fox News in the name of governmental transparency. Fox’s biggest star, Tucker Carlson, downplayed the severity of the Capitol storming in a broadcast last week. “Something must be wrong with Tucker Carlson,” Pelosi said. “There’s money that runs a lot of it.”
Taking a brief conciliatory note, she said she was hoping “for the best” for McCarthy as he continues his first year as House speaker. “We need to listen, and I hope that Kevin will listen to other than just the very radical, right-wing fringe of his party,” she said, apparently gesturing at Trump and other election deniers. When asked about the prospect of Trump again becoming the GOP nominee in 2024, she was ready with a canned line: “If he is, we impeached him twice, and he’s gonna lose twice.” (Left unsaid was that neither impeachment resulted in Trump’s removal from office.)
As for President Joe Biden, Pelosi called him a “magnificent leader” and said that she “certainly hopes” he will run again. (She joked that he’s younger than she is.) Nevertheless, Pelosi seemed slightly agitated that Biden had yet to formally declare his candidacy, leaving other potential candidates in the Democratic party with few options. “I think it would be efficient for us to have a president seek reelection, and we should be moving on with it when we can. Whatever decision he makes, we’d like to know.”
From Trump’s “Tiny D” moniker to Tucker Carlson’s ball-tanning, Republicans can’t seem to stop talking about that body part. Is somebody feeling insecure?
MSNBC’s Alex Wagner asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday if the Biden administration considers Fox News a news organization. That prompted a thoughtful response, at least at first. (Watch the video below.)
But the analysis gave way to a light exchange in which Wagner concluded with a wry smile: “So, I’m gonna say that sort of sounds like the White House doesn’t think Fox is a news organization, but we gotta leave it there.” Both laughed.
Wagner had mentioned Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s “whitewashing” of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection ― most recently through cherry-picked Capitol security video showing mundane moments during the attack. She showed President Joe Biden’s firm response to the conservative dismissal of events, noting that 140 officers were injured in insurrectionist violence that Carlson and some extremist Republicans are trying to downplay as innocent tourism.
“Does the White House consider Fox News a news organization?” Wagner asked Jean-Pierre.
Jean-Pierre replied that court depositions show that even Fox News does “not see Tucker Carlson’s show as news or even truthful. That is coming from the Fox leadership, that’s not coming from me. That is coming from them.”
A judge, in a 2020 defamation ruling siding with Fox News, ruled the “general tenor” of Carlson’s show should signal to viewers that the TV personality “is not ‘stating actual facts’ about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary.’” Viewers should be skeptical, the judge added.
Documents released in Dominion Voting Systems’ ongoing defamation suit against Fox News seem to reinforce that point, showing that Carlson and other prime time personalities privately mocked Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies while promoting them on TV.
As for the legitimacy of Carlson’s latest round of denying the severity of the Capitol siege, Jean-Pierre said:
“It was an attack on democracy. It was an attack on our Constitution and you cannot whitewash that. Tucker Carlson cannot whitewash that. Anyone who doesn’t see with their own eyes what occurred cannot whitewash that. And so, the president’s going to stand with the police officers, he’s going to stand for truth. And clearly, that is not what Tucker Carlson believes in.”
That’s when Wagner attempted to sum up Jean-Pierre’s reply, with the two sharing giggles at the MSNBC host’s conclusion.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Wednesday aired old footage of Tucker Carlson that he said could be the Fox News personality’s “villain origin story.”
In a 2009 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Carlson lamented the lack of a right-wing alternative to The New York Times and warned the audience that “a news organization whose primary objective is not to deliver accurate news” will be doomed.
“You will fail. You will fail,” said Carlson. “Conservatives need to build institutions that mirror those institutions. That’s the truth. You don’t believe me?”
Carlson had correctly identified “the hardcore political right didn’t have its own rigorous journalistic institutions that could just produce reliable, trustworthy information for people,” said Hayes.
Carlson’s answer was to create The Daily Caller website.
But it didn’t work as a mainstream outlet, explained Hayes, because there wasn’t an appetite for it from conservatives.
“That video right there, Tucker getting booed at CPAC for having the temerity to say this obvious truth, might as well be his villain origin story,” said Hayes.
Carlson learned his lesson and later leaned into fringe conspiracies on Fox News, said Hayes.
Wednesday wasn’t such a great day for Tucker Carlson’s credibility.
First, the White House slammed the Fox News host for spreading lies about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and then #TuckerCarlsonIsALiar became a trending hashtag on Twitter.
But the biggest insult to his reputation may be a resurfaced video from 2003 showing Carlson being interviewed on C-SPAN about his book, “Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News,” and, in particular, Bill O’Reilly, who was at the time the biggest name on Fox News.
“Bill O’Reilly is really talented, he’s more talented than I am, he’s got a lot more viewers, he’s a better communicator than I am,” Carlson, who at the time was a commentator on CNN’s “Crossfire,” said, “but I think there is a deep phoniness at the center of his schtick, and again as I say the schtick is built on the perception that he is the character he plays.”
Here’s a link courtesy of Twitter user Ron Filipowski.
It’s a good time to revisit what Tucker Carlson said in 2003 about Bill O’Reilly: “O’Reilly success is built on the perception that he really is who he claims to be. If he ever gets caught out of character, it’s over. There’s a deep phoniness at the center of his shtik.” pic.twitter.com/Y1mJ9PFSFX
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 8, 2023
Although Carlson’s comments could be seen as slightly critical of O’Reilly, Politico columnist Jack Shafer noted that “with a little tweaking, this assessment of O’Reilly could be cut and tapered to dress Carlson.”
Twitter users seemed to agree with that take.
This is great! Thanks for sharing this! Not surprising that Tucker Carlson is a giant hypocrite when it comes to authenticity! He’s no different from that swaggering charlatan Bill O’Reilly. Two plutocrats who pretend to be populists. Carlson deserves a similar forced exile. pic.twitter.com/63YjvlJ73N
But the difference is much of the base won’t even hear about how fake he is cuz our media is afraid to speak against him. You think influencers want to be banned from his show? Doubt it. https://t.co/PR9wr8sIJe
Really amazing, it’s like he was exactly talking about his future self.
By his own words, it should be ‘over’ for him, after he got caught out of character, saying he “passionately” hates the greatest populist president in U.S. history, and called him a “demonic force”… https://t.co/nfVEH1M2o1
Not only does TC play a character, but he stole it from Stephen Colbert who created it for the Daily Show/Colbert Report by mocking and exaggerating the Bill O’Reilly character TC accurately accuses O’Reilly of creating.
“I mean, I lie if I’m really cornered or something,” Carlson admitted. “I lie. I really try not to. I try never to lie on TV. I just don’t ― I don’t like lying. I certainly do it, you know, out of weakness or whatever.”
In 2020, Fox News won a defamation lawsuit against Carlson by successfully arguing “that given Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer ‘arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism’ about the statement he makes,” according to NPR.
The blowback continues for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for giving Fox News Jan. 6 riot video. CBS News chief political analyst John Dickerson joins “CBS Mornings” to discuss the impact of all of this and the state of Republican Party.
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Carlson, who was given exclusive access to Jan. 6 security footage by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has cherrypicked the video to claim the rioters were basically just “sightseers” and not violent insurrectionists intent on keeping Trump in power.
Despite his links to Carlson’s attempt at gaslighting, Trump Jr. recognized what was happening as events unfolded on Jan. 6.
Meadows said he was “pushing” Trump to do so.
“We need an Oval Office address,” Trump Jr. replied. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
Critics of the ex-president’s son fired back to his tweet by noting that Fox News is already being sued for $1.6 billion over its other false claims related to the 2020 election and its aftermath.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson is receiving widespread bipartisian criticism for claiming on his show that the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was “mostly peaceful.” Carlson aired footage from the Capitol that was recently provided to him by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Nikole Killion has the details.
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy granted Carlson access to more than 40,000 hours of the Capitol security footage from January 6. CNN and other news organizations have also requested access to the security footage. McCarthy’s office said it is still working out the process to make the footage “more widely available” but did not comment further.
Capitol Police have continuously warned that release of all security footage from the Capitol could pose a potential security risk for the building. CNN has reached out to Capitol Police for comment.
Carlson, who used the footage in an attempt to downplay the violence and defend the pro-Trump mob, claimed he had Capitol Police review the footage before airing it.
“We do take security seriously, so before airing any of this video we checked first with the Capitol Police,” Carlson said. “We’re happy to say their reservations were minor and for the most part they were reasonable. In the end, the only change that we made was in blurring the details of a single interior door in the Capitol building.”
Multiple sources on Capitol Hill, however, told CNN that Carlson’s show provided only one clip to review and not the others.
Here’s what was in the footage that aired Monday:
Carlson claimed that new Capitol security footage taken on January 6 shows Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman,” walking through the Capitol without pushback from police.
In one clip, Chansley is shown with two officers who attempt to open a door near the Senate chamber. In a second clip, Chansley, still flanked by the two original officers, walks between a group of about half a dozen officers and none appear to try to step in.
There is no audio in the videos, and it is not clear whether the officers and Chansley are talking to each other.
In court documents, however, prosecutors say that Capitol Police officers repeatedly tried to engage with Chansley and others in the crowd, asking them to leave.
Prosecutors say that Chansley disobeyed that request and walked to the Senate floor. Video from that day shows officers following Chansley around the building, and an officer walks into the chamber with Chansley and continues to ask rioters to leave.
Additionally, Capitol Police officers have testified at several January 6 trials that after the initial wave of rioters entered the building, they felt outnumbered and were afraid of escalating violence by engaging with the mob. Members of the crowd were therefore able to walk into the building without much, or any, physical resistance, according to the officers.
Chansley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing the Electoral College proceedings on January 6 and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Judge sentences ‘QAnon Shaman’ Jacob Chansley for role in Capitol riot
Carlson aired never-before-seen surveillance footage that he said showed Sicknick, who died one day after the January 6 insurrection. Carlson said he focused on this because Democrats have turned Sicknick into a “prop” and a “martyr” by overstating the links between his death and the insurrection.
Carlson used the new video to try to undermine the known facts surrounding Sicknick’s death, and to argue that January 6 was less violent and “deadly” than it has been portrayed.
The video shows Sicknick in the crypt of the Capitol, appearing to give instructions to some of the nearby rioters who are milling around the area, repeatedly waving his arms. Carlson argued that Sicknick looks “healthy and vigorous” in the video, and therefore “it’s hard to imagine” that he was severely injured by the rioters or that he died because of the insurrection.
On January 6, Sicknick was attacked with pepper spray and physically fought with members of the mob. An officer testified that she saw Sicknick in significant distress after he was sprayed. He died one day later after suffering a series of strokes. The DC medical examiner ruled that he died of natural causes but said, “all that transpired (on January 6) played a role in his condition.”
Mother of fallen Capitol Police officer shares why she snubbed GOP leaders
According to Carlson, the new tape of Sicknick was recorded after he was attacked on the frontlines of the Capitol steps, earlier in the day. CNN does not have access to the footage and cannot verify Carlson’s claims, and it’s unclear how Fox News determined that it’s Sicknick in the video.
The new Sicknick footage does not disprove the medical examiner’s conclusion that January 6 influenced Sicknick’s death, and it doesn’t erase the fact that Trump supporters assaulted Sicknick that day.
Two rioters pleaded guilty to crimes related to the pepper spray attack against Sicknick, though neither were accused of killing him. Julian Khater, who deployed the spray, is currently serving a six-year prison term. His friend George Tanios spent five months in jail and has been released.
Sicknick’s mother, Gladys Sicknick, previously blamed Trump supporters for his death. In a statement Monday, after Carlson’s show, the Sicknick family blasted Fox News and argued that the footage shows how he was able to valiantly “resume his duties” after being attacked by the mob.
“Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again, and we are frankly sick of it,” the Sicknick family said in the statement.
According to statistics released by the Justice Department earlier Monday, more than 999 people are facing federal or local charges related to the January 6 attack, 326 of whom have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees.
According to the department, 140 officers were assaulted at the Capitol that day, including 60 Metropolitan Police officers and 80 Capitol police officers.
And 518 of those charged have pleaded guilty to various charges related to that day, including 60 defendants who have pleaded guilty to federal charges of assaulting officers.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday strongly criticized Carlson for diving “deep into the waters of conspiracy” to tell “the bold faced lie” that the Capitol attack was not violent.
He also strongly condemned McCarthy for sharing the footage with Fox, arguing McCarthy is “every bit as culpable” as Carlson.
“To say January 6 was not violent is a lie – a lie pure and simple,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a prime time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain and he’s going to come back tonight with another segment.”
The pushback didn’t just fall along party lines. Several GOP senators rejected the notion that January 6 was “mostly peaceful chaos” as Carlson had contended.
“I think it’s bullsh*t,” GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told CNN Tuesday of Carlson’s portrayal of the attack, adding, “I just don’t think it’s helpful, but I do think it’s important to point out that that’s happened on both ends of the political spectrum and they’re both wrong.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, similarly told CNN, “I think that breaking through glass windows and doors to get into the United States Capitol against the orders of police is a crime.
“I think, particularly when you come into the chambers, when you start opening the members’ desks, when you stand up in their balcony, to somehow put that in the same category as a permitted peaceful protest is just a lie,” Cramer said.
Minhaj went through the explosive court documents released in recent days that show Carlson and others at the right-wing network knew Donald Trump and his representatives were lying with their claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
But they went on the air with those claims anyway, according to the documents.
Minhaj said one behind-the-scenes message “truly freaked me out.”
It was a message from Carlson warning that viewers might leave for Newsmax if Fox News didn’t toe the Trump line and spread his conspiracy theories.
“He’s saying, ‘If I don’t say this bullshit, my viewers will leave me,’” Minhaj translated. “This whole time we thought Fox News was manipulating its viewers. But it turns out the viewers were manipulating Fox News.”
Then he offered up his explanation of Carlson’s behavior:
“Just think of it like this: Tucker Carlson is a moral vacuum. A hole, if you will, who glorifies election deniers. So, a glory hole. And his viewers expect him to please them with his mouth, and he’s constantly terrified that they’ll find a new, more satisfying glory hole. And that is why Tucker Carlson will never stop sucking.”
