The January 6 Whitewash Will Backfire
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Fox News access to thousands of hours of video from the events of January 6, and Tucker Carlson’s effort to rewrite history isn’t just laughably incompetent; it’s already falling flat.
A Clumsy Gambit
When a mob tried to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, congressional Republicans—especially those in the Senate—seemed briefly to understand the magnitude of the events around them. Kevin McCarthy, then the GOP minority leader, said that President Donald Trump bore responsibility for the attack. Even Lindsey Graham swore he was done with Trump.
This new seriousness didn’t last. A year after the attack, most Republicans—including McCarthy— ducked a ceremony at the Capitol marking the anniversary and commemorating the lives lost. McCarthy would later be elected speaker on the say-so of a handful of extremist Republicans—some of whom openly sympathized with the 2021 insurrectionists—who made him grovel through more than a dozen rounds of voting. Insofar as other Republicans can bring themselves to even acknowledge January 6, many of them still portray it as a legitimate protest that somehow got out of hand rather than what it really was: a seditious conspiracy to attack the American system of government, instigated and encouraged by a sitting president of the United States.
Heading into the 2022 midterms, the Republicans hoped that an attempt by their party’s leader to overthrow the constitutional order would be no impediment to regaining national power. The midterms, however, proved that Americans still care about their democracy and that they could not be swayed to trade their freedom away merely because gas prices are too high. At this point, the Republicans are barely holding the House, and Trump is leading the pack of possible GOP presidential candidates while yawping about “ retribution .” Most Americans continue to think January 6 was a terrible day for the United States and that Trump bears at least some responsibility for it.
Not to worry, Republicans. McCarthy and Fox News’s resident pluto-populist Tucker Carlson are on the case. Unfortunately, it’s going about as well as you’d expect from anything that involves the words Kevin McCarthy and Tucker Carlson .
To recap the events of the past few weeks: McCarthy apparently decided that Carlson was the person who could remove the stain of January 6 from the Republican Party. Remember, once Trump was elected in 2016, the GOP was a national majority, holding the House, the Senate, the White House, most governor’s mansions, and most state legislatures across the country. Trump destroyed much of that, and his decision to run again meant that January 6 could not somehow be memory-holed. So the speaker gave the ever-perplexed Carlson access to thousands of hours of video from the attack.
The objective here was clear from the start. If the GOP is going to make a run at national power again, it must find a way to deny the reality of January 6 and neutralize the cloud of seditious stink that still clings to every Republican because of Trump and the insurrectionists. Who better than Carlson to sneer his way through a dismissal of one of the worst days in the history of the United States?
Unfortunately, the attempt to gaslight millions of people isn’t going very well. Carlson, as my colleague David Graham points out , is engaging in a “long-standing Donald Trump approach of demanding that his supporters believe him rather than their lying eyes.” But there are likely limits to that gambit even for Carlson, who is presenting as bombshells things we already knew. It is not a revelation, for example, that the “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley, walked along with Capitol cops who were trying to keep the fur-hatted weirdo calm even while he was howling in the Senate chamber . Carlson’s attempt to deny the danger of that moment is not only silly but also a gobsmackingly incompetent attempt to use footage depicting a rioter whose bizarre behavior was already well-known to the public.
It’s one thing to assume that the Fox audience isn’t very bright and will believe almost anything—I will gladly stipulate to that—but it’s another to ask them to leap across a chasm of credulity. Sedition-friendly Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, tried to capitalize on Carlson’s after-school-video special by immediately calling for a new trial for Chansley. But even Fox viewers probably know that Chansley wasn’t convicted in a trial: He loquaciously pleaded guilty and got a stiff sentence of 41 months in prison.
I realize that, for many reasons, I am not Carlson’s target demographic. (He’s not much of a fan of my work either.) But when Republican members of Congress are pushing back on a major propaganda effort to help … well, to help the future fortunes of Republican members of Congress, things are not going well. You might have expected someone like Senator Mitt Romney of Utah to zing Carlson, and he did, saying the Fox host had gone “off the rails” and describing him as a radio “shock jock.” But conservative Senators Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Mike Rounds of South Dakota both criticized Carlson. (Even Senate Minority Leader and ongoing profile in courage Mitch McConnell carefully opined that Fox “made a mistake” in depicting January 6 in a way that was “completely at variance” with how the head of the Capitol Police “correctly” described the day.) Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Carlson’s presentation was “inexcusable” and, for good measure, “bullshit.”
Trump, of course, thanked both Carlson and McCarthy. Because, really, if the point was to reassure the American public about whether the GOP is still in the grip of violent seditionists, what better way to do it than to clumsily cherry-pick some video and then elicit an all-caps tirade from the leader of the Republican Party?
LET THE JANUARY 6 PRISONERS GO. THEY WERE CONVICTED, OR ARE AWAITING TRIAL, BASED ON A GIANT LIE, A RADICAL LEFT CON JOB. THANK YOU TO TUCKER CARLSON AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE KEVIN McCARTHY FOR WHAT YOU BOTH HAVE DONE. NEW VIDEO FOOTAGE IS IRREFUTABLE!!!
Well then. As Sonny Bunch from The Bulwark wryly observed this morning: “Going to be kind of funny to watch GOP candidates dance around acknowledging that the presidential frontrunner and the party’s semi-official media organ are more or less pro-storming-the-Capitol at this point.”
As counterintuitive as it might be, perhaps the best thing for American democracy would be for Carlson to keep bumbling his way through more January 6 footage and to keep images of the insurrection in front of millions of viewers for as long as possible. If that’s how McCarthy and Carlson intend to restore the image of the GOP as a normal political party, who are any of us to argue with such public-relations geniuses?
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In the meantime Dominion Voting is searching for just the 'right' thank you card to send off to Tucker ... fun times!
We need to get Al Jizzerror on the job with a meme. He'll hook Dominion up
I can't be meme to poor little Fucker Carlson, he might cry.
Don't you know that the events of 1/6, which we saw with our own eyes, what actually happened, is 'what we are being led to believe'? That's according to certain posters here according to the Faux 'news' version of what happened that day.
I watched it from the other side of the world - the whole world saw it, and nobody's ever going to be fooled into thinking that it was only a "peaceful demonstration" or a permitted exercise of the First Amendment.
at this point that appears to be an understatement
He'll survive in MAGAland, vitriol is a vitamin in their world.
Although there are certain posters on NT's that are already running with the "see it wasn't really that bad" comments already.
Idiocracy.
Only fools think it was really, really, bad.
Those dildos are anti-American Trump Traitors.
So they all ran to a safe space?
I rest my case. I guess I can go to lunch now.
That's what you've been led to believe
lol
So, by your logic, when Sarumon's Ork Army breached the walls of Helms Deep thus forcing King Theodon into hiding within his castle's keep, everything should have been forgiven and forgotten since Rohan showed up at the very last minute to save the day? Is that right?
Damn - what level was that one on? Might wanna do a "recal" to find it
Historically mobs storming a nation's capitol would be killed on site, their leaders arrested, tried and executed for treason...
They feel these traitorous scum are being treated too harshly. IMHO they are not being treated unfairly to begin with and they are being sentenced far too lightly.
The day the peasants attempted an assault on the Winter Palace
So who is to blame for that? Looks like a failure in leadership by the capitol police as well as DC police...........and not paying attention to intelligence sources.
Now that I agree with.
Or, Tiananmen Square! The Capitol Police and National Guard treated the January 6th Insurrectionists with kid gloves...
This isn't news. We saw they were defensive, not offensive!
They should be heralded for their restraint on January 6th...
Is that why they killed an unarmed female without warning?
Yes.
But so would a group who seized part of a major city and attempted to declare independence from that country.
So if we're not going get outraged about the CHOP/CHAZ insurrection in Seattle, we can't very well get outraged about the next insurrection. Either rioting is a problem or it isn't. Either insurrection is a problem or it isn't. It can't only be a problem when people you hate are doing it.
Personally, I would LOVE to see all of the Jan 6 rioters thrown into jail and each forced to share a cell with a Seattle/Portland left wing rioter.
Either they'll all learn that people are really not all that different.... or they'll kill each other. Either way, problem solved.
Sometimes I like the way you think. Do you think we could sell tickets to this circus?
Are you suggesting the US should act more like third world or Authoritarian countries?
Yes strange to see someone advocating for a Tianmennen Square style machine gunning of innocent protestors in the US..
Never would have thought I'd see China's murder of peaceful protesters, one of the most famous atrocities in recent history, held up as a model of how governments should act by an American.
But that's where the extreme left is today.
But it didn't really happen that way.
The demonstrators indeed should be heralded for their restraint.
Oh hell yeah.
If it does indeed backfire, it could most likely be against some on the rabid left pushing hard to tar all on the conservative right with the same brush.
[deleted]
[deleted]
“I guess I can go to lunch now..”
…crow now or crow later…
What is your fucking "case", another [censored]?
What do you want to say?
Speak up!
The only person that was killed on Jan 6th was Ashley Babbitt who was killed by Barney Fife who shouldn't have ever been on the DC police force. Pretty damn sure Democrats aren't honoring her. The other deaths were not related to Jan 6th in any way shape or form. Just massive Democrat spin.
Your side is the one that honors traitors.
I feel sorry for her and her friends and family, but she caused her own death with her reckless fanaticism.
BULLSHIT! He was hiding in a doorway out of sight, had the pussy got out in front and pulled his weapon we wouldn't be having this conversation.
“He was hiding in a doorway out of sight.”
No, he was protecting the Capitol, repeat the Capitol, and its occupants on a day they were to confirm the results of a duly recorded election.
While tragic, her death could have been avoided had she not bought in to the ridiculous narrative…a ridiculous narrative that continues to this day.
[deleted]
Would you expect a police officer in a similar situation to just stand out in the open in front of a violent mob, without attempting to take some sort of cover?
Of course you wouldn't.
What a fucking stupid comment.
Sandy, had he been out in front with his weapon drawn they would have never come through the door!!!!!!!!! If you watched other videos that is exactly what the Secret Service did and imagine that no, one came through the door.
They would never have come through the door? You think the violent mob would have assumed that there was nobody armed protecting the Capitol from insurrectionists? They knew they could get shot. They broke in, anyway.
Judging by the panic among the Democrats and the left, Tucker Carlson is releasing the secrets that the J6 Shit Show kept hidden (even from defense attorneys).
You think that video of 'the Shaman' being escorted by police is anything other than a sideshow?
The Ds might be concerned if video exonerated Trump and his cronies. Nothing even remotely close to that has been revealed. I very strongly suspect there is nothing there to reveal.
It is entertaining (and sad) watching R partisans take this feeble spin from Carlson and attempt to transform it into something of significance.
I said what I think.
Yet. Or is that what you and all the other lemmings are fearful of?
Then why are you all in such a panic?
People watched this live on TV. People who live in the real world know what they saw. Even Republicans are tucker's video bogus
That is just your imagination again. There is no panic; what on Earth is there to cause panic?
It is absurd (and foolish) to desperately attempt to turn this feeble spin and deflection into something of significance.
More entertaining to me. And desperate and pathetic and deplorable.
Don't you know that what we saw with our own eyes is what 'we are being led to and want to believe'.
Let's just say concerned that Tucker's theories are going to further endanger poll workers come 2024.
Through public records and interviews, Reuters documented 102 threats of death or violence received by more than 40 election officials, workers and their relatives in eight of the most contested battleground states in the 2020 presidential contest. Each was explicit enough to put a reasonable person in fear of bodily harm or death, the typical legal threshold for prosecution.
Almost all of the 102 threats of violence appeared to be inspired by Trump’s debunked claims that the election was rigged against him. The messages often included highly personal, sometimes sexualized threats of violence or death, not only to the officials themselves but also to their family members and their children.
They see panic when what they should really see is utter disbelief.
It's been revealed recently that Fucker stated 'I hate him passionately' regarding the former 'president' yet he still sucks his . . . . with all his recent 'revelations' from fellow . . . . sucker McCarthy.
He sees dollar signs every time he sucks his....
Imagination would be thinking you're correct in any stretch of the definition.
I believe you should get yourself to an emergency room, self immolation wounds leave horrible scars.
You have nothing to offer but bullshit quips like that.
You would be well-advised to take a stand only when you are on a solid foundation.
It is amazing that you, et. al. are so willing to cast integrity aside and 'fight' just for the sake of fighting.
You keep crowing about Trump being guilty of some crime, please lay out your facts!
I wish you and many of your fellow Rs would stop making shit up. I know that in lieu of an argument, it is tempting to just invent a strawman argument. But that is such a lame tactic.
I have never stated that Trump IS guilty of a crime. To be guilty of a crime he would have to be tried in a court of law and found guilty. I have stated that he has done wrong. And I have presented the facts many times. So often that your fellow Rs complain that I repeat the list too often.
Pay attention. As it stands, you clearly do not know what you are talking about. Clueless.
You have nothing to offer but bullshit quips like that.
I haven't seen much of anything from you either. Take your crying elsewhere.
Yeah, because you're such a good example. I'll pass.
You see it as fighting, we see it as pointing out your flawed hive think.
And it's predictable.
I would like to ask the idiots who say that the Jan 6th insurrection is "overblown" one question:
Do you think it would have been a good idea to "HANG MIKE PENCE!"?
It should be obvious that I think Trump engaged in considerable wrongdoing.
I would not be at all surprised if Trump were indicted and found guilty in a court of law. Until that happens, guilt does not apply.
Guilt is a legal determination. Wrongdoing, however, can be concluded by an individual. I have concluded wrongdoing.
Do you recognize any wrongdoing by Trump in his post election loss actions and inaction?
You have NEVER said Trump is guilty of anything. "Wrongdoing" is what Trump majored in when he attended college.
I think Trump will be convicted of multiple crimes in court. Then we can all agree that he is GUILTY (except Trump and his Trumpanzees who will claim that the court case was "rigged").
Spot on. Some people are quite predictable.
Then why is it that you misrepresent my claims of wrongdoing as claims of guilt?
If you see wrongdoing why do you object when I rebut others defending Trump by claiming that he has not been found guilty of a crime by listing wrongdoing and asking them if they acknowledge wrongdoing by Trump?
Brett is more news than opinion. If you are going to keep promoting a narrative through meme at least have one that is correct.
Yep and what they lefties say is that none of it is news while every one of the people in that meme use actual news stories to segue into their narrative.
Nothing different than MSNBC or CNN does every night. But if Fox does it heads explode. Lucky for me I stocked up on popcorn, it makes for great TV. PS I think the second picture might be Martha something or other. Not sure if she is news or opinion.
McCallum
Seems that way for sure....................
There are 2 methods to accomplish that ruse;
1 - wrap a lie in layers of truth
2 - wrap a truth in layers of lies
Presto, instant propaganda either way.
3. Never believe your lying eyes (you can only believe what Trump tells you to believe).
Nice try at a deflection. Did you notice the other four liars in the meme? Follow the sheeple to the right.
LOL, I'm sure that they do especially when they promote the ''big lie''....
Brit Hume is the conservative commentator on Fox "news."
He is fair and balanced and fucking horny.
Does he wear the "sexy vixen vinyl" outfits or does his partner wear them?
Asking for a friend....
Well, you indicated your interest about pictures of Brit Hume (6.1.10 ).
Naturally, I thought you must know he might wear "sexy vixen vinyl" outfits.
My friend was hoping you had pics of those "sexy vixen vinyl" outfits.
Just admit you Googled "Brit Hume sexy vixen vinyl" to "satisfy your own prurient desires."
Made you look....
Made you look.
I don't pretend to have any "friends".
Fixed it.
PERFECT!!!
"Heading into the 2022 midterms, the Republicans hoped that an attempt by their party’s leader to overthrow the constitutional order would be no impediment to regaining national power. The midterms, however, proved that Americans still care about their democracy and that they could not be swayed to trade their freedom away merely because gas prices are too high."
I thought the closeness of the midterms was because of the Row vs Wade decision and the Republicans militant stance on abortion rights and not the so called "attack on democracy" the media had been promoting for 2 years. As a matter of fact I seem to recall the polls taken at the time said the Jan 6th sham had very little if any impact on voting. I wish the lefties and the Atlantic could get their story straight.
Quite a bit of anti-Trumpism figured into that vote...it certainly wasn't because of the voters acceptance of Biden and his left wing henchmen.
An anti Trumper is and always was an anti Trumper. I don't think the Jan 6th shit show added to the anti Trumper ranks.
I want to thank all of the knuckle dragging White-wingers for joining in with Fucker Carlson's attempt to re-write history.
I love it when assholes like Fucker Carlson minimize the Jan 6th insurrection.
Do you idiots remember the loudest chant on Jan 6th?
Hang Mike Pence!
HANG MIKE PENCE!!
HANG MIKE PENCE!!!
Were they patriots or fucking traitors?
Here are the traitors being "allowed to enter".
Anyone who thinks that "they were allowed to enter" is dumber than a box of rocks.
Do you smash windows when your friend lets you in his house?
See anyone shot up and made into hamburger? All it would have taken is one or two and the rest would have scattered.
Why would I if he already let me in?????
The MAGA scattered like rats, as soon as Ashley Babbit was shot!
The rats scattered like MAGA, as soon as Ashley Babbit was shot.
The rioters were let in according to you so why did they smash windows?
Probably to get in. I am sure they thought they would be stopped at any door and said door(s) would have armed protection which turned out to be not the case. So they headed for the doors. Even the Shaman walked in through a door I believe after hanging out with the window bashers.
They were already in.
They caused destruction and mayhem that day and no amount of spin is going to change that
“Probably to get in.”
Obviously to get ‘in’.
In to the Capitol. In to disrupt the proceedings. In to appease their leader.
Agreed. It was stupid bullshit idiocy that ruled the day.
Derp.
They shot one. Did they scatter?
Not outside....................and yes they did retreat when she was shot. There were even LEO behind her when she was shot and then the "SWAT" guys came up the steps as people left the scene and went down.
How did you get in?
I thought that she was killed at 14:45 but the Capital Police didn't call it secure until 20:00. You seem confused by the event timeline.
And?
And what?
The tide turned about two forty five in the afternoon January 6th...
Really, so not "scattered" but "tide turned", yet? How so:
15:00 - rioters break into the Senate chamber
15:12 - rioters chanting, "Break it down! Break it down!" overwhelms Capitol Police officers guarding the Speaker's Lobby
15:36 - NG activated
16:05 - Biden addresses the nation and asks Trump to end the siege
16:17 - VA and MD send NG and state troopers to the Capital
17:45 - Capitol police start clearing the building
20:05 - Senate reopens
I think that you remain confused on the timeline.
The traitors were sent to the Capitol by the "Traitor in Chief" (who said he would go with them).
They were victims of Trump's "big lie".
They thought they could help Trump regain the throne.
Giuliani said, "let's have trial by combat!" because Trump lost every case in courts even where he had appointed the judges.
Fortunately, Mike Pence refused to go along with Trump's attempted coup.
Trump actually hoped that his traitors would kill Pence (and lots of the members of Congress) for not cooperating with his coup.
The truth is that Trump's big lie caused a thousand of people who believed it to get arrested.
One of Trump's gullible believers was even killed by the big lie.
Everything that happened on Jan 6th was Trump's fault.
Trump brought the crowd to the Capitol where he incited the fucking RIOT.
Those who say it wasn't a riot are so stupid they still believe the big lie.
Tucker Carlson has thrown water on the hair-on-fire. Carlson has forced the narrative to change from 'insurrection' to 'riot'. It's not a small feat to force the biased press to change its story.
Jan. 6th as a riot instead of an insurrection loses quite a bit of political luster. The public has endured a number of riots over the last few years. And Jan. 6th, as a riot, invites comparison with other riots. And in a comparison with other riots, Jan. 6th doesn't look that bad.
What will backfire is continuing to portray Jan. 6th as an insurrection. Carlson's disclosed video really doesn't support that narrative any longer. Yep, Jan. 6th was bad. But so were all the other riots the public has endured. Like it or not, Carlson has established equity in how Jan. 6th should be viewed.
It was both.
It was the only riot/insurrection that threatened the US government.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., runs through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Damn, those tourists are dangerous, run Josh run.
Josh Hawley showed his "bravery" before the insurrection:
Butt he "Hawled ass" when the insurrection began.
Like many Republicans Hawley pooped his panties.
When will right wing folks ever wake up to the reality that Fox is owned by a foreigner that has no reason for loyalty to Americans. He was always in it for profit alone no matter who they lie to or dupe for viewership.
Do you really think that any other cable news network has any loyalty to Americans beyond the money they can bring in? The cable news system is designed to make money and they do it by aiming at their watchers so that the same watchers will continue to watch thereby insuring a solid bottom line for the company. I would say Fox is more successful at this as their network has higher ratings than the others. With how CNN continues to drop in ratings, it's a wonder how long they may be able to stay on the air.
Yes.