President Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) came up with nothing resembling a sensible answer when asked by Maria Bartiromo if he regretted giving Tucker Carlson the 1/6 tapes.
Video:
Kevin McCarthy claims to be transparent on the 1/6 tapes, but then adds, “My goal here is transparency and we’re going to slowly roll it out to each individual news agency. They can come and see the tapes as well.”
Kevin McCarthy has a strange definition of transparency. pic.twitter.com/K5487T5lhN
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 12, 2023
McCarthy said, “I didn’t give him the tapes. I allowed him to come see them, as an exclusive with anyone else. My goal here is transparency and we will slowly roll it out to each individual news agency. They can also come and see the bands. The first thing I noticed was that the committee on January 6 was not honest with us and it’s not 14,000 hours of recordings but 41,000 hours of recordings . Let everyone see them and make their own judgement. The only thing I understand in America is that we should have equal justice. What is really the problem with me? Why did I watch federal courts? Why have I watched towns burn and federal agencies and no one’s been arrested? I think we should have equal justice across the country. We should have transparency.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) pointed out that McCarthy may have violated the First Amendment by giving Tucker Carlson exclusive access to government documents.
Video of Lofgren:
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) suggests @Acosta that McCarthy may have violated the 1st Amendment by giving 1/6 footage exclusively to Tucker Carlson, “The 1st Amendment doesn’t just let you pick a favorite political son if you’re the government and turn down other media. ” pic.twitter.com/kPWZzW0gYm
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 11, 2023
Lofgren said on CNN on Saturday, “The 1st Amendment doesn’t let you pick a favorite political son if you’re government and opt out of other media.”
There is no friendly outing and few friendlier hosts for Kevin McCarthy than Maria Bartiromo and Kevin McCarthy always turned into a bunch of mush that couldn’t offer anything resembling a logical explanation of why he would give Tucker Carlson access to sensitive Capitol security footage.
True transparency would involve handing the footage over to credible journalists and news networks, not some partisan propagandist trying to rewrite the story of a domestic terror attack.
Jason is the editor. He is also a member of the White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate studies focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association