McCarthy Fundraising Off Giving Tucker Carlson Jan. 6th Tapes: ‘I Promised I Would Give You The Truth’

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) sent out a fundraising mailer this week looking to cash in on his recent decision to release 41,000 hours of security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol exclusively to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The mailer landed in inboxes with the subject line “Re: Tucker Carlson’s Jan. 6 footage” and began with a news headline, apparently from the New York Post, that read, “Kevin McCarthy gives Tucker Carlson access to Jan. 6 riot surveillance tapes.”

“You deserve the facts – all of the facts,” McCarthy’s mailer reads, adding:

I promised I would give you the truth regarding January 6th, and now I am delivering. I have released the full 44,000 hours of uncut camera surveillance footage.

It is in the public interest to know everything that happened that day – not just the narrative that Pelosi’s partisan committee wanted you to see ahead of the 2022 midterm elections…

The Republican leader then asks, “Would you consider chipping in $5, $10, or $25 to help House Republicans keep delivering on our commitments to America?”

The fundraising effort comes amid a storm of criticism regarding McCarthy’s decision to give access to the tapes, which had been closely guarded to protect the safety of Capitol police officers, exclusively to Carlson. Many in the media have called on the House to release the tapes to outlets other than Fox News as well, while other critics have deemed their release a security threat.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote McCarthy a “dear colleague” letter on Tuesday and accused the Republican leader of endangering law enforcement by giving Carlson the footage.

“I write with respect to public reports that extreme MAGA Republicans in the House have provided tens of thousands of hours of sensitive Capitol security footage to a FOX News personality who regularly peddles in conspiracy theories and Pro-Putin rhetoric,” Jeffries began, referring to Carlson.

“The apparent transfer of video footage represents an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol Police, who valiantly defended our democracy with their lives at risk on that fateful day,” he concluded before detailing security protocols used by the House Jan. 6 committee to view the tapes.

Carlson has been a leading figure on the hard right promoting the idea that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was an inside job meant to act as a pretext to weaponize federal law enforcement against Trump supporters. Critics claim that such conspiracy theories have led to an increase in threats and targeting of law enforcement officials.

“The U.S. government has in fact launched a new war on terror, but it’s not against al Qaeda, it’s against American citizens. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of our country. This is an attack on core civil liberties and it’s essential that you know what’s happening and that you resist it,” Carlson said in October 2021 while promoting his highly controversial series Patriot Purge.