Last February, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave full access to Capitol security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection to now-fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Carlson’s show swiftly used the tapes to churn out an almost maudlin segment claiming that the rioters were “orderly and meek” in between their bloody attacks on police officers, ransacking of congressional offices, and hunts for Donald Trump’s named political enemies.
The debacle ended up a humiliating episode for McCarthy, and only partly because the speaker’s claims that he wasn’t just giving Carlson the footage, he’d be releasing the footage to the public and the American media in general, quickly proved to be a lie.
Fear not, America: On Wednesday, we learned that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would finally be following up on his release of the Capitol security footage to Carlson by allowing three more not-quite-journalists “unfettered” access to the tapes. The new winners are conspiracy peddler John Solomon, conspiracy peddler Julie Kelly, and a “third outlet” apparently too embarrassing to mention in public. And it was the conspiracy-peddling Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who announced this “huge news” on Twitter.