Of course Kevin gave Tucker the Videos
Of course Kevin gave Tucker the Videos
It's his only (slim) hope of recovering from his biggest blunder
I was just as outraged as the next liberal to read that Speaker Kevin McCarthy had given Tucker Carlson full access to the 44,000 hours of Capitol security videos from January 6th. Andy Borowitz, in The New Yorker, deftly captured the moment with this headline:
It’s a good gag, but the reality is that McCarthy hired Fox. No, that’s not quite right either. It’s the MAGA base that has hired both of them.
The functional definition of a leader is someone with followers. But the modern definition of a Republican leader is someone who poses in front of a mob holding a flag.
Kevin needs Tucker Carlson to rescue him from biggest blunder of his career—withdrawing all of his picks for the Select Committee on January 6th, thereby allowing Nancty Pelosi to appoint a unified bi-partisan panel. That monumental self-own is the single biggest reason that the Committee was able to deliver a comprehensive and persuasive series of made-for-TV public hearings. Those hearings laid out Trump’s multi-layered schemes for overturning the 2020 election—and did so without any chaff thrown into the mix by the GOP bullshit brigade. Because of Kevin’s blunder, we avoided hearings muddied with the usual cacophony of clashing narratives and dueling egos as Republicans and Democrats alternate five-minute turns, hogging camera time, and lobbing soundbites out to social media and cable news.
The January 6th Committee got to uncover and convey a compelling story. Naturally, the MAGA base demands a rebuttal. McCarthy is on the hook to offer one, but he is powerless to deliver anything effective by the usual means. To gain the Speakership, he has been forced to stack his performative revenge committees with his party’s most talented-demagogues. But so far, their hearings have sputtered. Democrats like Jamie Raskin, AOC, Maxwell Frost, and others have proven effective at truth-squadding and blunting the propaganda.
Employing Carlson, however, gives McCarthy a direct pipeline to the base. As Luke Broadwater and Jonathan Swan point out in their analysis in The New York Times, it’s a “move to appease the right wing of his party, this time by effectively outsourcing a bid to reinvestigate the riot to its favorite cable news commentator.” What’s more, it’s a move that not only outsources the investigation but, more importantly, puts the presentation into the hands of a well-funded media professional and his production team.
The January 6th Committee hearings were made for TV under the guidance of an award-winning television producer—former president of ABC News, James Goldston. By engaging Tucker Carlson and his patented dyspeptic scowl, McCarthy is looking to get some equivalent show-biz pizzazz on the cheap. Remember that, unlike the Committee, McCarthy isn’t trying to persuade the nation. He’s, simply trying to mollify and retain the support of the committed MAGA base. Something that, as the Dominion lawsuit filings have demonstrated, Fox News excels at.
Let’s review how we got here.
Previously…
February 15, 2021: Speaker Pelosi proposes an independent “9-11-style” Commission. It would have been appointed by Congressional leaders but would include no members of Congress. Pelosi and McCarthy agreed to designate the Chair and ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee to negotiate the details
March 14th, 2021: Bennie Thompson and John Katko announced they have an agreement on the particulars: ten members, half chosen by Democrats, half by Republicans. Subpeonas issued only if the Democratic chair and Republican vice chair agree.
May 19, 2021: Despite McCarthy’s opposition thirty-five Republicans joined the Democrats to pass it in the House. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately signaled his opposition to an independent commission. (As did the defeated, disgraced, twice-impeached ex-president)
May 28, 2021: GOP opposition in the Senate blocks the bill when it fails to get the 60 votes required to break a filibuster. The vote is 54 (Yea) – 35 (Nay) – 11 (Not voting).
June 23, 2021: Speaker Pelosi announces she will form a Select Committee in the House. “This morning, with great solemnity and sadness, I am announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the Jan. 6 insurrection.... it is imperative that we establish the truth of that day.”
Asked about Republican participation, she answered "I hope that Kevin will appoint responsible people to the committee."
June 30, 2021: The House votes to establish a Select Committee to investigate January 6th. Where 35 Republicans had previously voted for the Independent Committee, only two voted with the Democrats on this resolution—Liz Cheney and Adam Kinziger. 190 Republicans voted Nay.
July 1, 2021: Kevin proposes Rep. Jim Banks (Indiana) as ranking member, along with Jim Jordan (Ohio), Rodney Davis (Illinois), Kelly Armstrong (North Dakota), Troy Nehls (Texas). Banks immediately announced his intention to investigate “not only the January 6 riot at the Capitol, but also the hundreds of violent political riots last summer when many more innocent Americans and law-enforcement officers were attacked.” He was one of three in the list who had voted against certifying Biden electors.
Pelosi includes one Republican, Liz Cheney (Wyoming), among her eight picks.
July 21, 2021: Pelosi rejects two of Kevin’s picks—Jim Banks and Jim Jordan. Kevin withdraws the remaining three (Davis, Armstrong, and Nehls), setting the stage for an effectively functioning investigation and report
July 25, 2021: Pelosi appoints a second Republican to the Committee—Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Illinois).
And so the die was cast. GOP counter-narratives were excluded from the hearings— and the final report of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Nearly all of the witness were not only Republicans but also Trump White House and campaign staffers who had finally reached the last straw.
Now what?
Now that Tucker’s producers have access to the footage, what will they do with it?
They will likely scour it for B-roll use in reinforcing all of the top MAGA counter-narratives about January 6th. Just a first-amendment protest. Political persecution. Deep-state provocateurs.
One of the most-pernicious MAGA narratives that I expect Tucker to press: the “martyrdom,” as they call it, of Ashli Babbit, shot as she tried to climb through a door into the Speaker’s Lobby. He has claimed on his show that she was shot simply for have the wrong beliefs. “To shoot an unarmed woman is so immoral and [it is] so dishonorable for a man to do that. How could you ever encourage that? If you encourage that, aren’t you really saying anyone who disagrees with me should be killed?”
The Babbit shooting is only one item on what will prove to be a long list of counter-narratives that Carlson’s team will churn out. If there’s any consolation, the entire enterprise has already been discounted by the reality-based world. It’s aimed only to keep the base fired up. But that’s small consolation. A riled up MAGA base has already proven to be powder keg.