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Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) expressed admiration for his House speaker successor, Mike Johnson (R-LA), during a Sunday interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” McCarthy commended Johnson for overseeing the long-anticipated release of additional footage from January 6 to the public. In response to the new speaker’s announcement of the gradual online disclosure of tens of thousands of hours of video on Friday, McCarthy stated, “Johnson is doing an outstanding job with that, continuously adding more and more.”
Before being removed as speaker last month, McCarthy initiated the process of releasing U.S. Capitol security tapes. These tapes offered the public an unfiltered perspective of the events during the U.S. Capitol breach on January 6, 2021, in contrast to the images presented during hearings conducted by the January 6 Committee under Democratic leadership in the House.
During McCarthy’s tenure as speaker, he shared access with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who aired footage revealing instances where police officers appeared to be standing by passively as individuals entered the Capitol. Additionally, the House, under McCarthy’s leadership, began to provide restricted access to other members of the media and defendants involved in the January 6 events.
“The one thing I had found is, we wanted transparency. So, when we took the majority, [the] first thing I did was make sure those tapes became under the responsibility of House Administration. What we found was, [the] January 6 Committee had lied to us, that there were thousands of more hours of tape,” McCarthy said.
“And the first thing I wanted to make sure is, anybody who was in jail, had the right to a defense was able to see those tapes. So that was the priority,” he added. “The defense was able to go through those. We started bringing press in to be able to see it. We were building a portal where every time the press looked at something and they went through it, the public was able to get it.”
