JUST IN: Kevin McCarthy Releases Jan. 6 Riot Tapes — All 41,000 Hours — to Tucker Carlson

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has finally released the 41,000 hours of surveillance footage filmed during the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol — but not publicly. The top Republican gave the footage to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to a new report in Axios.

Axios co-founder Mike Allen reported Monday morning:

Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.

The top rated Fox News host has a complicated history covering the Jan. 6 attack, in which a mob of Trump supporters inspired by his stolen election claims stormed the building, violently beat police, and hunted political leaders. The violence at the Capitol killed five people. Four police officers committed suicide in the months that followed. More than 100 police officers were wounded.

On the day of Jan. 6, Carlson expressed alarm about the events. In texts to his producer made public as part of Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against the network, Carlson wrote that Trump is “a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us.”

On air, he described the attack as a “storming” of the Capitol building. In the months that followed, however, he painted a nonsensical picture of the violent attack on air.

He has described the attack as a “nonviolent election justice protest” and even suggested the attack was a “false flag.”

In an interview with Axios, Carlson said “there was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret.”

“If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6,” he said. “By definition, this video will reveal it. It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that.”

Footage of the attack was aired extensively at last year’s House Select Committee hearings on Jan. 6.