Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sided with Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger in rebuking Fox News host Tucker Carlson for downplaying the January 6 Capitol riots.
Topline
Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger tore into Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a letter to the police force on Tuesday, a day after Carlson downplayed the January 6 Capitol riot, calling the depiction “outrageous and false,” prompting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to firmly side with the Manger.Key Facts
Manger accused Fox of “conveniently cherry-[picking] from the calmer moments” of the 41,000 hours of video footage provided to the news network by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last month.
Carlson’s “most disturbing accusation” was claiming “unscrupulous politicians” lied when they said Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was “slain” on January 6, Manger wrote.
Sicknick, who died the following day after suffering two strokes, according to the D.C. medical examiner, would not have died if he had “not fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted,” Manger wrote.
Manger also said that Carlson’s team provided an inaccurate characterization of what it planned to air to the police force, despite Carlson saying on his show that his team “checked first with the Capitol Police” and their concerns were “minor” and “reasonable.
