The family of Brian Sicknick, a deceased U.S. Capitol Police officer, claimed Fox News host Tucker Carlson used new footage to downplay the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Sicknick passed one day after the Capitol riot due to natural causes, according to the District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. He was 42 years old.
"Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it," the family said, comparing the network to former Soviet Union state-owned outlet Pravda.
Fox News "will do whatever they are told to keep the hatred and the lies flowing while suppressing anything resembling the truth," they continued. Sicknick’s family also claimed its primary motivator was "advertising money."
It comes after Fox News aired the never-before-seen footage Monday on Carlson's show. The videos provided by House Republicans demonstrated a far calmer scene than that initially described by the House Jan. 6 committee.
During the segment, Carlson said the new footage "does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress" and "demolishes" any similar accusations. He also highlighted the death of Sicknick – which he criticized the media for incorrectly reporting.
Daily Mail noted that it was originally suggested Sicknick's death came as the result of being attacked with a fire extinguisher and pepper spray by rioters. However, the aforementioned medical examination conducted later proved otherwise.
"To this day, media accounts describe Sicknick as someone who was, 'slain' on January 6," Carlson stated. "The video we reviewed proves that is a lie."
"Whatever happened to Brian Sicknick was very obviously not the result of violence he suffered at the entrance to the Capitol," he continued. "This tape overturns the single most powerful and politically useful lie the Democrats have told us about January 6."
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, has defended his move to give Carlson and Fox the 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 surveillance footage first. Last week, the speaker assured reporters he would eventually "give it out to the entire country."
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