Tucker Carlson: We are witnessing the most aggressive crackdown on civil liberties in our lifetime

This past January, just two days before Congress was scheduled to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the Electoral College, the House sergeant at arms received an urgent message. 

The message came from the man who, at the time, ran the Capitol Police department, Stephen Sund. Sund wanted  National Guard troops to stand guard around the perimeter of the Capitol complex. Sund knew, as everyone in official Washington knew, that an enormous protest against the Electoral College certification was about to take place. It was coming to Washington. Yet, for reasons that are not clear, the sergeant in arms refused that request. 

Then, on January 6, as Stephen Sund predicted, thousands of protesters did arrive in Washington. As the crowd grew and became unruly, Stephen Sund made five more urgent requests for soldiers of the Capitol. Sund was still begging for reinforcements as protestors breached the doors and roamed the halls of the building. And yet, once again, every single one of Sund's requests for help was rejected. 

REP. JEFFRIES SAYS JAN. 6 COMMITTEE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GOP TO SHOW THEY REALLY ‘BACK THE BLUE’

But why? Why did that happen? January 6 is one of the most discussed events in modern American history. And yet, more than six months later, we still don’t know why that happened, no one has explained. Nancy Pelosi knows why it happened. She could tell us what happened if she felt like it. The sergeant at arms reports directly to Nancy Pelosi. She’s the speaker of the house. 

And yet repeatedly, she has worked to stop any inquiry whatsoever into the state of security at the Capitol on January 6th. In fact, the very next day on January 7th, Pelosi forced Stephen Sund to resign from the Capitol. End of discussion. 

What exactly is going on here? Congress’ new January 6th committee was supposed to tell us what is going on here. Figuring out what happened that day was the whole point of having the committee. We have heard that again and again. And yet, it turns out that Nancy Pelosi has no intention of revealing everything she knows about January 6th. So she has turned that committee into yet another instrument of cover-up. 

Today, Pelosi banned two Republican members from serving on the committee. They are Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks from Indiana. What did they do wrong? Those two specifically are the most likely to ask questions about January 6 that Pelosi did not want to discuss.  They pushed for openness, so she booted them. At a briefing in the Capitol today, she did not even bother to deny it. 

REPORTER: What was it about Jordan and Banks in particular? Because Nehls also voted to overturn the election.

PELOSI: That was not the criteria.

REPORTER: Yeah, what was the criteria?

PELOSI: Read my statement.
 

REPORTER: Did you talk to those two members?
 

Read my statement, Pelosi commanded. So we did. We read her statement. And it offered no explanations for why she banned Banks and Jordan. Once again, we know why she did. Because, of all the Republicans on the committee, those two were by far the most likely to press for answers. Even her lieutenants are not denying that’s why they were kicked off the committee. 

Here’s Virginia congresswoman Nancy Spanberger today on MSNBC.  
 

NANCY SPANBERGER: And this commission has to be set up to be a serious endeavor…Our Capitol was attacked on January 6th. I think it is absolutely important that every single person who serves on that commission, be they a Democrat or Republican, come to that commission as an American first, as a person with fidelity and focus on the constitutional duty that is ours, that we swore when we were sworn in just days before that attack on the Capitol.

Did you follow that? So if you want to know why officials who report directly to Nancy Pelosi repeatedly turned down security at the capitol on January 6th, even after protesters were inside the doors of the Capitol, if you want to know what the hell that’s about, you are un-American. You are a traitor. You hate the country. In fact, you might be a White supremacist insurrectionist yourself. So be careful. 

CHENEY BACKS PELOSI REJECTION OF REPUBLICAN LEADER MCCARTHY CHOICES FOR JAN. 6 PANEL

That is the official position of congressional Democrats. Remember when they told us they would unite the country if they ever took power? Looks like they didn’t mean it. So it’s fair to wonder what else they are lying about and covering up. Turns out there are still an awful lot of things we don’t know about January 6th, despite all the talking about it. 

For example, why is the Justice Department still tonight hiding thousands of hours of surveillance footage from the Capitol that day? What could possibly be on that tape that we are not allowed to see. Who killed Ashli Babbitt, and what was the justification for killing her? Government agents shoot them for trespassing and we are not allowed to know who did or why? Is that really the new standard? Does that same dander apply to BLM protesters too or people who voted for Donald Trump, people’s lives really don’t matter? And most critically of all, what role did the FBI play that day? We know for certain that there were FBI informants in the crowd at the Capitol. How many of them made it inside the Capitol and encouraged others to break the law? Don’t pretend the FBI doesn’t stage crimes. We know for a fact they do it regularly. We know for a fact they did it right before the election in Michigan for political effect. So, what exactly was the FBI’s role on January 6th and why can’t we know? 

PELOSI BANS GOP REPS. JIM JORDAN, JIM BANKS FROM SERVING ON JAN. 6 COMMITTEE, MCCARTHY THREATENS TOTAL BOYCOTT

With some prodding, Republicans might have asked about some of this. None of these are trick questions, not even partisan questions. They are entirely fair questions and they are important. Every American has a right to hear the answers and hear them immediately. January 6 is being used as a pretext to strip millions of disfavored Americans of their core constitutional rights. We are witnessing the most aggressive crackdown on civil liberties in our lifetime. That is not an exaggeration. 

Yet, thanks to Nancy Pelosi, the Jan. 6 committee will now operate the way she would like America to operate, as a one-party state. Kevin McCarthy, understandably, pulled the remaining Republicans off the committee in protest today. But, at least one would like to stay on the commission and lend her dwindling credibility to Nancy Pelosi’s power grab. That is Liz Cheney of Wyoming. She knows that she is coming to the end of the road. Her own voters despise her. Her career in Congress is over. 

So what next? Like her friend, Bill Kristol before her, Liz Cheney has a backup plan. She will find a billionaire to help her with pointless foreign wars. That’s one thing she believes in. Sucking up to fellow neocon Nancy Pelosi might help with that, so she’s doing it.

LIZ CHENEY: The rhetoric that we have heard from minority leaders is disingenuous. The attacks on this building on January 6th, the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814. It was an attack on our constitution. … Today, the speaker objected to two Republican members. She accepted three others. She objected to two, one of whom may now be a material witness to events that led to that day, that led to January 6th. … I agree with what the Speaker has done. 

MCCARTHY SAYS PELOSI ‘HAS BROKEN THIS INSTITUTION’ BY DENYING GOP PICKS FOR JAN. 6 SELECT COMMITTEE

So January 6th was the most dastardly attack on the Capitol building and more than 200 years, a period that has seen bombings and shootings, a lot of them in the Capitol, but if January 6th was the single worst, then why can’t we know the answers to the basic questions we just asked? That’s a question for Liz Cheney. If it’s that important, why are you hiding that information? What’s the answer? Of course, she doesn’t have one. Speaking of disingenuous. 

So the committee will proceed with one party. What will it look like? Think MSNBC with subpoena power. On Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi will call a capitol police officer called Harry Dunn, who will pretend to speak for the country’s law enforcement community. But it turns out that Dunn has very little in common with your average cop. He is an angry left-wing political activist whose social media feeds are full of praise, not coincidentally for Nancy Pelosi. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Racism is so American," he posted, "that when you protest it, people think that you are protesting America. #leaveittowhitestotellblackswhatisracist #IstandwithIlhanOmar #Squad." 

Leave it to Harry Dunn, ladies and gentlemen. Just another fact-based witness to the insurrection. 

This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the July 22, 2021, edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."