When the House Inquiry Committee on January 6 held the first televised hearing night on Thursday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed that the “most disturbing” part of the day was not the violent mobs of Trump supporters attacking officers and disrupting illegal democratic process because of a lie, but Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the Capitol police to use their guns to protect the Capitol and the legitimate people in it.
“I think the most disturbing moment a year and a half later, looking back, is the moment Lindsey Graham turned to the Capitol Police and said, ‘You have a gun. Use them,” Carlson said. The Washington Post report Last October, Graham was furious when he and other senators had to be taken to safety in the Hart Senate Office Building as Trump supporters roamed the halls. “What are you doing? Take back the Senate! You have guns. Use them,” he shouted at the Senate sergeant. “We gave you guns for a reason.”
Carlson, who mentioned how a Capitol officer shot and killed rioter Ashli Babbitt – who “posed no threat to anyone”, he claimed – returned to the topic.
“They just shot dead an unarmed ex-soldier. She is about 5 feet tall. And I guess the thing that annoys me the most is that no one cares,” Carlson told guest Tulsi Gabbard.
The Fox host later perjured that Babbitt’s death was not investigated.
“Police take lives; Usually it’s justifiable. We’ve covered it in this program. But the failure to investigate or explain that shows that the lives that have been taken have no value,” Carlson said. “And that is the message they are sending: that this woman’s life has no meaning at all. We just killed her and threw her away. How can members of Congress sit there and allow that? ”
In fact, Lieutenant Michael Byrd has been vindicated by the US Capitol Police, with their internal unit finding that “his conduct was legal and within Department policy”. Byrd’s identity kept anonymous for months due to death threats he received for his actions.
It is noteworthy that Carlson’s performance did not include any advertising but a steady stream of guests brought in to smear the committee’s work on January 6, just as Carlson himself often did. . Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the change to this regular program. Network has say second that Fox News Channel will not broadcast the hearings in prime time and will only cover them “as a guarantee of news.”
In Carlson’s performance, a Live image feed of the hearing room did not appear to show videos of the January 6 violence broadcast by the committee. Meanwhile, uninterrupted Fox viewers have been told, via chyron, “stay with Tucker for the truth about January 6.”
