‘THE PRESS IS JEALOUS’

Kevin McCarthy Defends Gifting Tucker Carlson ‘Exclusive’ Jan. 6 Tapes

The House Speaker said that the Jan. 6 footage would be made available to the wider public “as soon as possible.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Tuesday doubled down on his decision to give Tucker Carlson the scoop by handing over roughly 40,000 hours of security footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riots to the Fox News host. “It almost seems like the press is jealous,” the speaker mused to The Washington Post, going on to emphasize that the tapes would eventually be made available to the rest of the media and wider public. “People like exclusives, and Tucker is someone that’s been asking for it,” McCarthy said. “So I let him come in and see it, but everyone’s gonna get it.” In a conversation with other reporters on Tuesday, McCarthy promised to make the surveillance footage public “as soon as possible,” but demurred on an exact timeline, according to ABC News. McCarthy said that his office had worked with the U.S. Capitol Police to address security concerns voiced by Democratic lawmakers over giving Carlson and his producers “unfettered” access to the video. Hours earlier, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) had said that the full trove would be combed prior to its release, which would then be carefully coordinated.