Chris Lange, FISM News
Capitol Police did not attempt to prevent Trump supporters from entering the Capitol buildings and the officer who Democrats said was attacked and killed by the “mob” can be seen walking calmly as he guided people out of the building in the first batch of exclusive January 6 Capitol riot footage released by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on Monday.
Carlson said the never-before-seen video, which aired on Monday’s installment of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” proved that Democrats and the media “lied” about the so-called “insurrection.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last month gave Carlson access to more than 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol breach by Trump supporters who were protesting the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
One of the clips showed Trump supporters calmly walking through the Capitol building as “sightseers,” according to Carlson, in a manner that seemed to contradict Democrats’ narrative of a violent riot which the media likened to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
OFFICERS ACTED AS ‘TOUR GUIDES’
Another segment of footage reviewed by FISM showed Capitol police officers escorting Jacob Chansley, a Navy veteran the media referred to as “QAnon Shaman,” through the Capitol building and “to the very door of the U.S. Senate,” as described by The New York Post. Officers appeared to open the door for Chansley before he entered the chamber.
The footage also revealed that, at one point, Chansely was in close proximity to nine officers, none of whom appeared to try to restrict his movements.
🚨BREAKING: Never before seen video of January 6 shows Jacob Chansley, the QAnon Shaman, being led through the Capitol by police the entire time that he was in the building. pic.twitter.com/rikoRMWezF
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 7, 2023
“The tapes show the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides,” Carlson said. “If he was in fact committing such a grave crime, why didn’t the officers who were standing right next to him place him under arrest?” Carlson asked.
Chansley was later arrested and charged with “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.”
Chansley, who was sentenced to nearly four years in prison told Carlson in a jailhouse interview: “The one very serious regret that I have [is] believing that when we were waved in by police officers that it was acceptable.”
Carlson noted: “Jacob Chansley became the face of January 6, a dangerous conspiracy theorist dressed in an outlandish costume who led the violent insurrection to overthrow America’s democracy.”
FOOTAGE CHALLENGES NARRATIVE THAT OFFICER WAS MURDERED
Another batch of footage appeared to dispel the widely-publicized narrative that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died hours after the riot, was killed by Trump supporters. Legacy media claimed that Sicknick was “attacked” by the mob and “falsely claimed” that he was struck on the head with a fire extinguisher, using Carlson’s words. The clip he aired showed Sicknick, whose head was protected by a helmet, “walking normally” as he escorted Trump supporters out of the building.
“This tape overturns the single most powerful and politically useful lie that Democrats told us about January 6th,” Carlson told viewers.
He went on to point out that footage of Sicknick had been electronically bookmarked in the Capitol archives, which Carlson said proves that the Jan. 6 House Select Committee had reviewed it and chose not to include it in its prime time televised hearings, nor in the committee’s final report.
“They lied about the police officer they claimed to revere,” Carlson said. “If they were willing to do that, then their dishonesty knew no limits.”
FISM previously reported that an autopsy report revealed that Sicknick died of natural causes as a result of a blood clot that caused a series of strokes.
Democrats claimed Sicknick was one of five officers killed by rioters. However, Reuters reported in March 2022 that the four other officers present that day had each committed suicide after Jan. 6, 2021.
DEPICTION OF REPUBLICANS MANIPULATED ‘PROPAGANDA’
Carlson also pointed out that Democratic lawmakers had long accused Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) of organizing a “reconnaissance mission” through the Capitol building the day prior to the riot. The video clip used to support this narrative was actually footage of Loudermilk giving constituents a tour of a separate congressional building on the same block. Carlson noted that none of the visitors were in any way linked to Jan. 6.
Carlson also refuted the viral footage singling out Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-Mo.), whom the House Select Committee claimed “fled” from the mob in a cowardly fashion. The full footage revealed that Hawley was actually at the tail end of a group of lawmakers rushed out of the building by Capitol Police.
“The clip was propaganda, not evidence,” Carlson said.
MUSK, TRUMP. JR WEIGH IN
Reaction to Carlson’s release of the footage was swift and fierce.
Twitter owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk slammed the Jan. 6 Committee members for “misleading the public,” calling their actions “deeply wrong” in a tweet.
“Besides misleading the public, they withheld evidence for partisan political reasons that sent people to prison for far more serious crimes than they committed,” Musk wrote, referring to the hundreds of Trump supporters jailed in connection to the riot. “That is deeply wrong, legally and morally.”
“I was told the QAnon shaman was leading an insurrection not the one who is being led by police throughout the capital building,” Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted. “No wonder all the footage was kept from us for 2 years. As always they lied to us all!”
PublicSq Founder Michael Seifert wrote: “If you were being escorted by police officers through the Capitol building, would you think that you were committing a crime that would land you four years in jail?” The tweet included a clip from the footage aired on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” showing Chansley and two police officers calmly walking through an open door, presumably to the Senate chamber. Both officers walked with their arms relaxed at their sides while their firearms remained securely holstered.
Mollie Hemingway, Federalist editor-in-chief and senior journalism fellow at Hillsdale College, referred to media coverage of Sen. Hawley as “exceedingly dishonest” in light of the new footage.