U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., listens to the State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023.
Conservative reaction is now pouring in after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was a "mistake" for Fox News to allow Tucker Carlson to use the newly released Jan. 6 tapes to depict the events that day in a way contrary to the view of Capitol law enforcement.
"It was a mistake in my view for Fox News to depict this in a way that's completely at variance with what our chief law-enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks," McConnell said Tuesday.
McConnell's statement circulated widely on social media and was used by left-leaning media who have slavishly echoed the Democrats' "insurrection" narrative for more than two years to level their own attacks on Fox News and Carlson. Conservatives pushed back against the Kentucky senator and hailed Carlson for exposing the Democrats' J6 "insurrection" claim.
"The Democrats' dishonest narrative is being demolished," tweeted powerful House Republican Elise Stefanik, N.Y., who called the Democrats' J6 Committee "nothing more than a scam" used to smear Donald Trump and his supporters.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., speaks at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020 (RNC video screenshot)
Missing in McConnell's statement was any mention of Carlson's key findings, especially that the newly exposed footage undercuts the Democrats' and media's mantra that Jan. 6 was a "deadly insurrection" inspired by Trump.
Curiously, McConnell also failed to defend his fellow Republican colleague in the Senate, Josh Hawley of Missouri, by not mentioning Carlson's revelation that the Democrat-run J6 Committee had used its selective release of Capitol surveillance footage to make Hawley look like a coward.
As Carlson explained on his show Monday night, one of the J6 Committee hearings showed a clip of Hawley running out of the Capitol building, seemingly alone, thus making it appear as if Hawley was fleeing like a frightened chicken from the building. At the time, that potentially doctored clip actually drew derisive laughter from many attending the committee hearing, including reporters, as it purposely humiliated Hawley, one of the few GOP senators who supported Donald Trump's challenge to what Trump said was a "rigged" election.
However, the new footage aired by Carlson, thanks to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy opening up the full 41,000 hours of video footage, shows many legislators and their staff running out of the same Capitol exit, amidst the chaos, with Hawley actually one of the last people shown in the video clip to run out of the building.
In other words, even though Carlson's critics are accusing him of "cherry-picking" J6 footage to support his own, allegedly "conspiratorial, undemocratic" narrative, the popular Fox News anchor is actually exposing the cherry-picking done by the Democrats and the now-expired J6 Committee to sustain their overwrought "deadly insurrection" narrative.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also attacked Fox News and Carlson, in much stronger language than McConnell, on the Senate floor Tuesday. Schumer demanded that Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch stop Carlson from airing more J6 video.
After McConnell made his remarks, he refused to answer more questions about the J6 videos from reporters trying to get him to expand on his attack on Fox and Carlson.
Conservative reaction to McConnell's attack on the network was swift and devastating.
Hawley kept his response simple: approving of a tweet by conservative leader Charlie Kirk of TPUSA, who said, "BREAKING: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calls it a "mistake" for Tucker Carlson and Fox News to release the never-before-seen J6 footage," he tweeted, "Sunshine is always the right answer."
Similarly, in response to a tweet by nationally syndicated, conservative talk-show host Buck Sexton that read, "Democrats' whiny rage is the best indicator possible that the truth is finally coming out about J6," Hawley said: "Democracy dies in darkness" (mocking the leftist Washington Post's motto, one which most conservatives find ironic since the Post generally squelches facts and stories that harm Democrat agendas, e.g., the anti-Trump, anti-MAGA J6 "insurrection" narrative).
Conservative Christian Greg Price summed up the revelations of day one of Tucker's J6 video release, tweeting that the Democrat-dominated J6 Committee:
- Lied about how [Capitol Police Officer] Brian Sicknick died
- Lied about [Republican Congressman] Barry Loudermilk taking rioters on a reconnaissance mission
- Lied about Josh Hawley running away
- Lied about Ray Epps Being a credible witness
Other conservatives focused on McConnell providing cover for Schumer's stunning demand that Fox News censor its own top talk-show host, as well as the minority leader's fear that releasing the videos will expose his role, with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in failing to properly secure the Capitol. Julie Kelly of American Greatness, who has covered the DOJ's aggressive J6 prosecutions meticulously, mocked McConnell, whom she called "the most hated GOP senator."
"[D]id any GOP senator take to the Senate floor to denounce Schumer's lies about January 6 and his egregious demands for Fox to shut down Tucker Carlson?" she tweeted, with a link to her April 2022 piece in American Greatness entitled, "McConnell's 'Exhilarating' Insurrection." That article begins with this paragraph: "A dirty little secret about January 6 — one of many — is that Democrats and establishment Republicans, not Trump supporters, wanted to shut down the official proceedings of that day."
https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1633194899603324934
Kelly also cut to the core of MAGA conservatives' deep frustration with McConnell for not using his power to push for investigations of 2020 election abnormalities and alleged dirty political tactics by Democrats, Big Tech and the "deep state" that effectively "rigged" the election against the 45th president.
"No one — and I mean no one — was more desperate to halt planned proceedings of Jan. 6 [to examine 2020 election irregularities and unconstitutional state election-law changes] than McConnell. Not certification but 12 hours of debate on election illegalities and call for election audit commission. ... He described Jan. 6 the next day as 'exhilarating.'"
Speaking of establishment Republicans, two GOP senators often criticized by MAGA and conservative activists, Sen. Mitt Romney, Utah, and Thom Tillis, North Carolina, also slammed Carlson for his broadcast Monday revisiting Jan. 6.
On the House side, Trump-supporting GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, N.Y., offered two tweets Tuesday afternoon that were 180 degrees opposite of McConnell's condemning take.
Stefanik tweeted: "The Democrats' dishonest narrative is being demolished. The January 6th Committee was nothing more than a scam, with the sole purpose of smearing President Trump and his supporters," linking to a New York Post article about the Carlson-uncovered J6 video showing the infamous "Q Anon Shaman" being led around by Capitol police.
A second tweet by Stefanik said, "Last night, Tucker Carlson confirmed what I’ve been saying for well over a year. Nancy Pelosi’s sham, unconstitutional Jan 6th Committee was nothing more than a political witch-hunt designed to punish the radical Far Left's political opponents." It linked to Carlson's blockbuster investigation and a Tucker tweet that said, "Virtually no one in Washington, Republican or Democrat, wanted to see this tape released tonight."
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