Americans deserve to see the whole story about what happened Jan. 6, 2021, through the release of security camera footage, not just on what was spliced together by the House select committee that investigated the incident, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Newsmax on Tuesday.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., released more than 41,000 hours of footage to be viewed by staff for Fox News' Tucker Carlson. Segments of the footage began airing on Carlson's show Monday night, and more is expected to be broadcast on the show in the coming weeks.
"There's lots more in there I think the American public deserves to see, and they should," Burchett told "American Agenda." "It's just a shame that it took this long to get it out."
Burchett criticized the Democrat-controlled House committee for using only portions of the footage at its hearings. It has been widely reported the committee used former ABC President James Goldston to produce its televised hearings.
"The Jan. 6 commission was just an orchestrated sham," Burchett said. "All the tapes were basically edited by some ABC bigwig that was hired. I mean, can you imagine they were hired to put those tapes together and put them out to the American public?"
The first segment aired by Carlson showed Jacob Chansley, known as the "QAnon Shaman," being escorted by Capitol Police as he walked around the Capitol in his Viking-horned hat and face paint. Chansley, 33, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison after being convicted on a charge of obstructing an official proceeding, has maintained the behavior of the Capitol Police led him to believe what he was doing was acceptable.
Burchett, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, condemned the protests at the time and said Tuesday the behavior of Capitol Police on the footage was probably a way to de-escalate a tense situation.
"There were areas where there was violence and there were areas where there wasn't," Burchett said. "Once [protesters] crossed those barriers, though, they were trespassers. Now should [Chansley] go to jail for 41 months at taxpayer expense? I don't know if that should be.
"But when all of the evidence is not heard, I think we do ourselves a disservice."
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