Dems Fear Release of Jan 6 Video

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's decision to release 41,000 hours of video from the Jan 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol has struck fear into some leading Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called it "a grave mistake. There were very good reasons why former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) declined to make these videos available for public viewing. I can't tell you why she refused to air them, but trust me, she had good reasons. The American people have to have faith that their government is looking out for their best interests. Widespread viewing of these videos could destroy that faith."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-CA) complained that "the narrative that the January 6 special committee worked so long and hard to construct would be undermined by an indiscriminate viewing of the raw and unedited footage. The crucial few minutes the committee selected to demonstrate that right-wing traitors were intending to overthrow our government would be drowned out by the tens of thousands of boring hours showing people peacefully meandering in the building and give an erroneous impression of what happened."

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif) denounced the release of the videos, saying "I was on the special committee. We viewed the videos so the American people wouldn't have to. We sifted out the irrelevant, confusing, and contradictory content. Allowing the public to see what we sifted out would only serve to allow anti-regime propagandists like Tucker Carlson focus on extraneous evidence and lessen the chance that the insurrectionists would be properly punished for their crimes."

Carlson countered by suggesting that "Schiff's stance contradicts the very idea of a fair trial. In essence, he's saying that only the evidence that a prosecutor chooses to present should be allowed. Any exculpatory evidence must be withheld from the jury. We will go through the 41,000 hours to determine what we think ought to be seen. Ultimately, all of these 41,000 hours should be posted for examination by anyone one who wishes to see for themselves and make their own judgments about the event."

Pelosi warned that "letting anyone outside of government see these sensitive videos is inherently dangerous and could lead to an even worse disturbance than occurred on January 6th. If voters hadn't foolishly given Republicans a majority in the House last November I would have been able to prevent the catastrophe that McCarthy is foisting on this country."

John Semmens