What does Kevin McCarthy think he’s doing?
Rarely is there ever anything positive to say about any Republican, but at least Dan Crenshaw told the truth in his recent interview. Crenshaw was asked about his feelings on McCarthy’s release of January 6 footage to Tucker Carlson: “I don’t really have a problem with making it all public. But if your message is then to try and convince people that nothing bad happened, then it’s just gonna make us look silly.” “Silly” (or “stupid,” as the case may be) seems to be the norm for Republicans. McCarthy knew what Carlson was going to do with this footage. He cannot act surprised, and in fact, he has said nothing. Republican senators, however, are quite vocal with their feelings.
According to Politico, Republican senators have criticized Carlson for his false narrative that January 6 was “peaceful” in any way. This merely underscores the fact that Carlson knows his viewers are stupid and will take whatever he says as gospel. Politico also reported that in response to McConnell’s criticism, McCarthy alleged that CNN published leadership’s whereabouts on January 6 and that “he hoped the Senate leader would also be concerned by that.” Really, McCarthy? Is McCarthy a grown man or is he merely Donald Trump’s sandbox playmate? Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) told Politico that he “has a hard time with all of it,” contradicting Carlson’s claims that what happened that day was a peaceful protest. “It was a riot that should have never happened,” Armstrong said. “And a lot of people share blame for that. The truth is always messier than any narrative.” The truth is that Donald Trump caused this riot, and he was aided and abetted by congressmembers who continued to object to the certification of President Biden’s victory after they were forced into hiding. Republicans are just wrong, and they are determined to stay that way. Not to beat a dead horse, but it is still puzzling why people keep them in office, as they have no use for U.S. citizens.
The Capitol Police are not amused by this game. According to Politico, Chief Thomas Manger wrote an internal message to his officers that Carlson: “conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video” to pretend the assault on the Capitol was a peaceful protest. He is joined in that assessment by some Republican senators. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said: “Anybody that trespassed into the United States Capitol, whether they did peacefully … did it illegally.” He reenforced the fact that the footage should never have been used as a political ploy. Mitt Romney also weighed in, saying: “normaliz[ing] that behavior is dangerous and disgusting,” and John Kennedy (R-LA) said: “I was here. It was not peaceful. It was an abomination.” Mitch McConnell openly supported Chief Manager’s writing.
This all underscores the inadvisability of McCarthy’s release of tapes to Tucker Carlson. He continues to show that he is no leader. He’s an incompetent hack. But he does fit in with the rest of the Republican “leadership,” who are quickly becoming background video for laugh tracks.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years