McCaul says Jan. 6 tapes not going to show ‘tourism at the Capitol’  

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said on Sunday that the released tapes from the attacks on the Capitol during Jan. 6, 2021 are not going to show “tourism at the Capitol,” but rather would show a “dark, tragic day.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has spurred fury this month by granting Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to about 41,000 hours of tape from the attacks, which the Fox host has used to play down the severity of the mob’s actions that day.

McCaul told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that McCarthy gave him “assurance” that he is going to release the footage of Jan. 6 to other news outlets soon, adding that everyone deserves to see the footage from that day.

“I think the American people deserve to see all the footage from that day, and all the footage is not going to be, you know, tourism at the Capitol,” he said.

“It’s going to show a very dark, tragic day that I witnessed firsthand, that included our Capitol Police being assaulted, 140 of them injured, two pipe bombs. One Capitol police officer killed, and a protester killed. That’s not — that’s not a good day,” he continued.

Carlson aired the first of his Jan. 6 footage last week, describing the attacks as a “mostly peaceful chaos.” He also said that the phrase “deadly insurrection” was a “lie” and that “very little about Jan. 6 was organized or violent.”

Numerous deaths have been connected to the attacks that day, and nearly 1,000 arrests have been made in connection with the attacks.

McCaul added that the attacks should have been prevented.

“We had good intelligence that day beforehand. And look, I support law enforcement, like this DC crime bill we were passing. I support law enforcement everywhere, especially at the United States Capitol,” he said.