Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, blasted ‘one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television’. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock
Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, blasted ‘one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television’. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock
Schumer blasts 'shameful' Fox over January 6 footage
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has delivered a scathing rebuke of Fox News and its rightwing host Tucker Carlson for “manipulating” selected footage of the January 6 riot aired on his show last night.
On the chamber floor this morning, he accused the network and its star presenter of disdain towards politicians who were at the Capitol when it was overrun by a violent mob of Trump supporters, and the law enforcement officers who tried to defend it:
Last night, millions of Americans tuned into one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television.
With contempt for the facts, disregard of the risks, and knowing full well he was lying to his audience, Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a lengthy segment arguing the January 6 Capitol attack was not a violent insurrection.
By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy, and cherry picking from thousands of hours of security footage, Mr Carlson told the bald faced lie that the Capitol attack,which we also with their own eyes, somehow, not an attack at all.
Schumer: Last night, millions of Americans tuned into one of the most shameful hours we’ve seen on cable television. By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy and cherry-picking from thousands of hours of security footage, Mr. Carlson told the bold-faced lie… pic.twitter.com/dKEw2tJVKw
He tried to argue it was nothing more than a peaceful sightseeing tour. Can you imagine, a non-violent demonstration,a perfectly fine and appropriate instance of people expressing their opinion? I so many others who were here in the Capitol, and millions and millions of Americans are just furious with Tucker Carlson and Kevin McCarthy today.
Many of my staff were here at the Capitol on January 6, their lives were put in danger, as were the lives of many of my colleagues, as well as police, maintenance staff, reporters, countless others.
To say January 6 was not violent is a lie. A lie pure and simple. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a primetime cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr Carlson did last night.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain.
A military veteran accused of telling an undercover FBI agent about a plan to “wipe out” the nation’s Jewish population was convicted on Tuesday of storming the Capitol during the January 6 riot.
The Associated Press reports that Virginia resident Hatchet Speed, a former navy reservist assigned to an agency that operates spy satellites, will be sentenced on 8 May. He was convicted by US district court judge Trevor McFadden in a trial without a jury.
NOW: U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden has convicted Navy Reservist Hatchet Speed on all counts for joining the mob that stormed and occupied the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6. https://t.co/mvfXfpl5Tc
Speed was found guilty on all five charges, including a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding, namely the 6 January 2021 joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
The FBI recorded Speed’s conversations with an undercover agent more than a year after the riot, the AP reported. Speed told the agent that he marched to the Capitol with members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group.
We’re closing the US politics blog now, after a day in which Tucker Carlson’s ears must have been ringing loudly.
The rightwing Fox News host copped a barrage of criticism, from Democrats, the White House, the family of a fallen law enforcement officer, and even Republican senate minority leader Mitch McConnell for his skewed presentation of footage of the January 6 Capitol riot.
The videos were controversially gifted to Carlson by a generous congressional benefactor in the form of Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy, and he aired some of them on Monday night, portraying a violent mob of Donald Trump-incited rioters as “peaceful, orderly and meek” sightseers.
Here’s what else we followed today:
The White House lambasted Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis over the introduction on Tuesday of a bill that would further restrict the state’s abortion ban, from 15 to six weeks.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, denounced as “a rumor” a report that the administration was considering reinstating a Trump-era immigration policy that would detain families at the southern border. But a number of Democrats say they are concerned.
Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, made an unannounced trip to Iraq, promising to keep US military forces in the country, almost exactly two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Iraq war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
A report claimed Democrats are growing fearful that a third-party candidate could take votes away from Joe Biden during the 2024 presidential election and hand Republican favorite and former president Trump a ticket back to the White House.
Biden laid out some of his budget plans in a guest opinion piece for the New York Times, highlighting the preservation of Medicare as a priority and bashing Republicans over benefits for future generations. The president will unveil his full budget on Thursday.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, has criticised Fox News for misrepresenting the January 6 riot after his counterpart in the House gave Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of security footage.
Mitch McConnell. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock
Asked by reporters if Kevin McCarthy had made a mistake, McConnell said: “My concern is how it was depicted, which was a different issue. Clearly the chief of the Capitol police, in my view, correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on January 6.”
Carlson made first use of the footage on Monday night, seeking to portray the Capitol rioters as peaceful protesters.
In fact, on 6 January 2021 supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol after he told them to “fight like hell” in service of his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.
The riot was an attempt to stop certification of that result. It failed, but nine deaths have been linked to the attack, including suicides among law enforcement.
Carlson’s broadcast stoked outrage among Democrats and those who survived the attack or lost family members through it.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, blasted Carlson for creating“one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television” and showing “contempt for the facts, disregard of the risks, and knowing full well he was lying to his audience”.
Carlson, Schumer said, “told the bald-faced lie that the Capitol attack, which we all saw with our own eyes, somehow was not an attack at all”.
In what counted for strong remarks from a very cautious, not to say ruthlessly partisan operator, McConnell added: “It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that is completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks.”
Here’s some more on Fox News’ troubles by my colleague Martin Pengelly, who has news of another complaint affecting Rupert Murdoch’s rightwing empire:
A US Federal Election Commission complaint over the collusion of Fox News with the Trump campaign in 2020 could be the first of many, the complainant said, amid continued fallout from dramatic court filings in Dominion Voter Systems’ $1.6bn defamation suit against the network.
Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog, filed its FEC complaint last week, over the revelation that Rupert Murdoch personally gave Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, confidential information about a Biden campaign ad.
Jared Kushner and Rupert Murdoch at a 2014 movie premiere in New York. Photograph: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
A progressive political action committee, End Citizens United, also filed a complaint.
As defined by the Harvard Law Review, FEC “campaign finance restrictions do not apply to costs associated with producing news”.
Media Matters alleges that “press exemption” does not apply to Murdoch’s decision to give the Biden ad to Kushner.
Saying the move was “diametrically opposed to Fox Corporation’s regular press activity”, the complaint says: “Fox Corporation, through Murdoch, appears to have engaged in the exact type of campaign activity to which the commission has repeatedly affirmed the press exemption does not apply.
“Therefore, Fox Corporation cannot try to exploit the press exemption to avoid the consequences of making an illegal corporate in-kind contribution.”
The complaint seeks the maximum fine permitted and “appropriate remedial action”.
The White House is adding its voice to a barrage of criticism aimed at Fox News and Tucker Carlson for “sanitizing” the January 6 Capitol riot by airing selected footage on Monday night.
Earlier Tuesday, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer branded the rightwing network, and its star host, “shameful” for their skewed presentation of the attack, which attempted to portray the violent Donald Trump supporters who overran the Capitol as tourists.
Karine Jean-Pierre addresses reporters at the White House on Tuesday. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was equally dismissive at her Tuesday briefing to reporters of Carlson’s claims the mob was merely “sightseeing”:
Anybody who watched that video with their own eyes, in a real way, and saw what happened on that day, would disagree. The president has been very clear January 6 was the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.
We should be focused on making sure that never happens again. We hope that keeping the Capitol and Congress safe and secure remains congressional leaders’ number one goal.
All you have to do is watch those videos and see how horrific it was, see how sad it was. It was an attack on our democracy.
Her mention of congressional leaders and their priorities was presumably directed at Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who caused outrage by handing over about 44,000 hours of footage from the attack exclusively to Carlson.
The primetime Fox host is a Trump loyalist who repeatedly pushed the big lie of a stolen 2020 election on air, despite revelations that he and other Fox presenters and executives who also promoted it knew it was false.
Biden family immigration move reports infuriate Democrats
Karine Jean-Pierre says the White House “won’t comment on rumors that are out there” about the Biden administration potentially reinstating a Trump-era rule of detaining immigrant families at the southern border.
The New York Times first reported that the move was under consideration to stem an expected migrant surge once Title 42, a policy stemming from the Covid pandemic that allowed the swift deportation of migrants, is ended.
“I’m not saying it is, I’m not saying it isn’t,” Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said at her Tuesday afternoon briefing.
“The department of homeland security is working through ways on how to go forward once Title 42 is lifted. I’m going to let them do their work. [The president] is going to use the tools that he has before him to make… the immigration system safe, orderly and humane.”
Ben Ray Luján. Photograph: Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal/ZUMA/REX/Shutterstock
The report angered congressional Democrats. New Mexico senator Ben Ray Luján told Punchbowlhe was frustrated it didn’t come up when he and other Hispanic senators met with homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last month.
“It was a time to have honest conversations with one another,” Luján said. “And this is another one of those surprises – if it’s true – that was covered by the media. Fortunately for the media, we continue to find out decisions that are being made.”
Mayorkaswill hold a virtual meeting with congressional Hispanic caucus members at 5pm ET to discuss the uproar over the Times report, Punchbowl says.
The Biden administration has expressed its “deep condolences” to the families of US citizens who were killed in Mexico by members of a suspected drugs cartel.
Speaking at her daily briefing at the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said:
We’re still working with Mexican officials to learn more and to have all Americans returned to the United States.
President Biden has been kept updated on this incident. Senior members of the White House has have also been engaged. We extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends.
She added that US investigators were working with Mexican authorities to establish details of the incident.
Talking of abortion bans in Republican strongholds, Kamala Harris is backing five Texas women who are suing the state, having been denied the procedure.
When I convened health care providers at the White House in September 2021 in wake of Texas SB 8, we discussed the harm that doctors and nurses feared their patients would experience as a result of Texas’ extreme laws. Now, multiple women impacted by these abortion bans announced a joint lawsuit against the state of Texas, showing those fears have turned into reality. The lawsuit includes devastating, first-hand accounts of women’s lives almost lost after they were denied the health care they needed, because of extreme efforts by Republican officials to control women’s bodies.
Many extremist ‘so-called’ leaders espouse ‘freedom for all,’ while directly attacking the freedom to make one’s own health care decisions. Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, the President and I believe women – in consultation with their doctors – should be in charge of their reproductive health care, not politicians.
We’re about to hear from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the daily White House briefing, but she’s already made clear the Biden administration’s feelings on Florida’s six-week abortion ban proposal, introduced to the state’s legislature this morning.
In a statement to the Miami Herald, Jean-Pierre says the move would “ban abortion before many women know if they are pregnant”:
Politicians like Governor DeSantis espouse ‘freedom for all,’ while directly attacking the freedom to make one’s own healthcare decisions. This proposal is wrong and out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Floridians, who support a woman’s right to choose.
This ban would prevent not just the nearly four million Florida women of reproductive age from accessing abortion care after six weeks, but would also impact the nearly 15m women of reproductive age who live in states across the South with abortion bans and would no longer be able to rely on Florida as an option to access care.
It’s been a furiously busy day so far in US politics, and we still have the daily White House press briefing to come.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, blasted Fox News, and its star rightwing host Tucker Carlson, for their “shameless manipulation” of footage of the January 6 Capitol riot aired on Monday.
Carlson attempted to portray a violent mob Donald Trump supporters who carried out the deadly insurrection as peaceful sightseers enjoying a day out, and the backlash has been swift and strong.
Here’s what else we’ve been following:
Florida’s loyalist Republican legislature handed extremist governor and probable White House hopeful Ron DeSantis a key policy objective by proposing a six-week abortion ban.
Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, made an unannounced trip to Iraq, promising to keep US military forces in the country, almost exactly two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Iraq war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Democrats are growing fearful that a third-party candidate could take votes away from Joe Biden during the 2024 presidential election and hand Republican favorite and former president Donald Trump a ticket back to the White House.
