Fox News host Tucker Carlson produced a segment on Monday’s program showcasing portions of the more than 40,000 hours of security camera footage taken from the US Capitol during the January 6th Insurrection. Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly wasn’t appreciative of the way Carlson represented the event.
During his No Spin News and Analysis program, O’Reilly lamented the way January 6th had been handled by prominent Democratic lawmakers and pushed back against the insinuation that Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick died due to his involvement in defending the Capitol during the riots. O’Reilly contended that narratives around the day had been fabricated by those seeking to discredit former President Trump.
He then turned his attention to Fox News, and shared his disagreement with Carlson’s encapsulation, without naming the host.
“The tape shown by the Fox News Channel de-intensified how bad it was. Because the Fox editors, the producers, they took what they wanted to take,” O’Reilly said. “They didn’t show you the whole tape. The selectively took what they wanted to make points. Some of the points were valid, some were not. This wasn’t some sort of tourist excursion. This was a violent break-in. Doors, windows were smashed. People were out of control…so to try to diminish that it wasn’t a big deal that’s — on the other side — a lie. It was a big deal! It was appalling.”
During the segment Monday, Carlson claimed that people who broke into the Capitol on January 6th were not rioters, they were “sightseers” in his estimation, saying “very little about January 6th was organized or violent”.
“Footage from inside the Capitol overturns the story you have heard about January 6th,” Carlson said.
O’Reilly opined by simply stating “people will believe what they want to believe”.
