OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy honored his commitment to release over 40,000 hours of unseen footage from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, despite criticisms from Democrats and their ilk in the mainstream media. McCarthy shared the footage with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
McCarthy released the tapes in the media and promised to give the public access to them after his team reviews all of the footage to address any potential security concerns.
“This is the challenge. The Democrats told us it was only 14,000 hours of tapes, lo and behold, we take the majority and it’s 42,000 hours, so that would take me years to go all the way through,” McCarthy told reporters. “Yeah, I think the public should see what’s happened to them.”
“We’ve worked with the Capitol Police [to] tell us about [any] section that there was a problem. And that takes a long time. But we want to make sure everybody has the opportunity to come and see what they want,” he said. “So we’ve created the process to make that start happening.”
Now, pressure is growing for McCarthy to give other media outlets access.
“Nine major media organizations have sued the Justice Department and the FBI for access to the video footage of the Jan. 6 insurrection. The nine include The New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, and ProPublica. Public materials must be truly public. If Mr. McCarthy can give the stash to one talk show host, he can, and should, give it to every media organization and the public at large,” The Post-Gazette reported.
“That’s why the speaker must release the material to everyone. Everyone must have the chance to watch it and decide the narrative, and the more narratives we have, the better chance the public has of knowing what happened,” the outlet added.
McCarthy had a rough start to his tenure after it took a historic 15 ballots before he finally managed to secure enough Republican votes to become Speaker of the House in January.
But since then, he appears to have delivered in terms of legislation and has won the grudging approval of the most conservative members of his party.
“So far, McCarthy has logged surprise successes in the new Congress: The Republican House has passed dozens of bills, many of them bipartisan, including politically potent efforts targeting crime and the COVID-19 pandemic that left President Joe Biden almost no choice but to sign the bills into law,” The Associated Press noted in an analysis published.
“McCarthy has opened the Capitol more fully to visitors, relishing the onlookers who stop to snap selfies during his impromptu hallway news conferences. He hosted his first foreign leader, President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, with a diplomatic flourish, leading a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers standing up to China,” the analysis continued.
“On Monday, McCarthy will deliver a speech at the New York Stock Exchange, another sign of his rising influence,” the report continued.
McCarthy appears to have successfully walked the fine line between rank-and-file Republican members and the more conservative faction of the party.
“He’s performed better than I thought he would,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a past chairman of the Freedom Caucus whose members held off supporting McCarthy for a week. “I can’t complain.”
“Now there’s actually a check and balance,” added Eric Cantor, a former GOP congressional leader. “He is delivering that every day and very effective, obviously, at holding his troops together.”
“Tough job,” added GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, in remarks to the AP. “But he’s doing great.”
“We are proud of him,” Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., a Freedom Caucus member who was among the holdouts. He added that the struggle McCarthy faced to become second in line to the presidency may make him “the best speaker” in his lifetime.
“I mean, he’s proven he can fight. He’s proven that he’ll stick it out. Well, that should terrify the White House and terrify the Senate. The House is in control,” he said.
