AOC says Kevin McCarthy giving Jan 6 footage to Tucker Carlson is ‘completely unethical’

The House Speaker has said he did not watch controversial Fox News anchor’s broadcast

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted House SpeakerKevin McCarthy’s decision to turn over January 6 footage to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Carlson broadcasted selectively edited security footage of the January 6 riot on his highly-watched show on Monday evening in an attempt to portray the majority of those who broke into the Capitol as mostly peaceful and said “ These were not insurrectionists. They were sightseers.”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who has said she feared for her life on the day of the insurrection, told The Independent that Mr McCarthy’s actions made the Capitol less safe.

"It absolutely does," she said. "The fact that he handed that to one organization is completely unethical."

Ms Ocasio-Cortez serves as the number two Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on that committee who led the impeachment trial for former president Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, condemned Mr McCarthy’s actions.

“So turning over 10s of 1,000s of hours of footage for him for him to cherry pick a few minutes in order to take potshots at the January 6 bipartisan select committee was an outrage,” he said. “And I think it will be a career defining event for Kevin McCarthy.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also condemned the broadcast.

“Clearly, the chief of the Capitol Police in my view correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on January 6,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr McCarthy said that he turned over the footage to the highly-watched Fox News host in the name of transparency, but said he hadn’t watched Carlson’s broadcast.

“I didn’t see what was aired, what I want to do exactly is give the transparency to everybody and everybody can make up their own [mind],” he told reporters on Tuesday.