Tucker Carlson: Lies about Jan. 6 have enabled unscrupulous people to steal our freedoms
Fox News host Tucker Carlson reflects on the January 6 Capitol breach two years later on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
Two years ago today, a Capitol Hill police officer called Michael Byrd shot an unarmed woman in the neck. At the time of that killing, Byrd had a documented history of gross negligence with a firearm. He left a loaded Glock pistol in a public men's room at the Capitol, which for a law enforcement official is a firing offense. But for some reason, Michael Byrd was still on the force that day. The woman he killed was called Ashli Babbitt.
Babbitt was a married 14-year veteran of the U.S. military. She ran a pool cleaning company with her husband in San Diego. Physically, she was tiny. She was also unarmed. Michael Byrd later admitted he had no indication at all that Babbitt was carrying a weapon. She posed no visible threat. He killed her anyway.
Under normal circumstances, Byrd would have been fired immediately and charged with murder, which he clearly committed, but that's not what happened. After doing essentially no investigation into the shooting, Nancy Pelosi's congressional police force declared Byrd a national hero and the media strongly agreed.
Byrd went on television to accept accolades and to complain about racism. He was never punished for killing Ashli Babbitt. He was rewarded for it. Ashli Babbitt 's mother, meanwhile, got a very different sort of treatment. Babbitt's mother was arrested today in Washington by the Capitol Police. Her crime? Trying to hold a memorial service for her daughter.
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Two years later, it's clear that Ashli Babbitt is – her death – is by far the most significant thing that happened at the US Capitol building that day, but at the same time, it is the least talked about event of January 6. Why is that? Well, because the facts about what actually happened on January 6 disrupt the lies, what they told you happened on January 6, and those lies have proven very useful to the Biden administration and to permanent Washington.
On the basis of a wholly created myth about what happened that day, the Biden Pentagon conducted an unprecedented political purge of the entire U.S. military. The FBI and various intel agencies increased their control over the American media and most obviously, the DOJ has been allowed to prosecute and jail hundreds of nonviolent political protesters whose crime was having the wrong opinions. Lies about January 6, which have been relentless, have enabled some of the most unscrupulous people in our country to make a mockery of our Bill of Rights and to steal our core freedoms.
So they can't talk about Ashli Babbitt. Talking about Ashli Babbitt makes it very clear who the real culprits are and who the real threats to this country continue to be and they're not the January 6 protesters. So instead, they lie about what happened that day and they do it in the boldest possible ways, without shame and with maximum aggression. Here's Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democrats in the House, telling you that five police officers were killed on January 6, when in fact, the real total is zero.
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: We are gathered here to honor their memory and acknowledge with deep gratitude the tremendous bravery of the hundreds of officers who defended us at this citadel of democracy that fateful day. As a result of the events on January 6, the lives of five heroic officers were lost.
Five heroic officers were lost, he said. It's almost impossible to believe that adults could stand behind him as he said that because everyone in the picture you just saw knows that is not true. It's not a stilted interpretation of events. It's a flat out lie. No police officers were killed on January 6. Period. Ashli Babbitt was killed on January 6, but chances are our grandchildren will not know that because history will likely record the lie you just heard as true simply because it's been repeated so often. Everyone in authority has said the same thing in unison for two solid years. As our thoroughly dishonest Attorney General recently put it "we will never forget the five officers who responded selflessly on January 6 and who have since lost their lives." His boss, Joe Biden, repeated that lie today from the White House.
U.S. President Joe Biden walks to speak to reporters as he and first lady Jill Biden leave the White House and walk to Marine One on the South Lawn on December 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker)
PRESIDENT BIDEN: These people and the people representing those who couldn't be here because they gave their lives for this did, is incredibly consequential. That's not political talk. That's historical fact.
"That's historical fact," says Joe Biden as he manufactures history, as he tells lies. They've been doing this, telling these same lies since the very first day, January 6, 2021, almost like it was a coordinated operation. Remember when they told you that Brian Sicknick, Officer Brian Sicknick, was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher?
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN: Officer Sicknick died after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.
CNN REPORTER : Sicknick died after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.
ANA CABRERA, CNN: Officer Brian Sicknick died after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher during the hours long attack.
NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC: They beat a Capitol police officer to death with a fire extinguisher.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: Officer Brian Sicknick died after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher during the fight.
CRAIG MELVIN, MSNBC: He died at the age of 42 after he was bludgeoned the fire extinguisher.
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That's not true and in the end, thanks to the medical examiner in the District of Columbia, we learned the fact, which is that Brian Sicknick died of a stroke well after the January 6 protests. He was not beaten to death with a fire extinguisher, but that did not stop their lying or even slow them down.
Joe Biden just awarded one of this country's highest civilian honors, the Presidential Citizen's Medal, to officers working on January 6 and that would include the officers who opened the doors of the Capitol building to the so-called insurrectionists, the officers who let them inside and then were rewarded for it by the president of the United States.
"What's going on here? " You may wonder. Well, don't ask. You're not allowed to know what's going on here, nor can you know about the very obvious clandestine role of federal agencies that encouraged the events of January 6. That happened, but its details have never been explained. A lot has still not been explained from that day, despite a committee that was impaneled for more than a year.
For example, you remember the pipe bomber who planted explosives outside the Democratic National Committee? Well, those explosives, it turns out, were under a bench at the same moment that Kamala Harris, who had Secret Service protection with her, who swept the building, was there. So, how did the U.S. Secret Service miss a bomb sitting in plain sight during its security sweep? Well, we can't answer that because the FBI still to this day refuses to release all the security footage.
Why? What's going on here? Almost unique among media outlets, Revolver News asked that question.
REVOLVER NEWS: The pipe bomber even looks at camera to head on for some reason. It's very frustrating because we can't see the moment the pipe bomber plants the pipe bomb, but the FBI can. That's because the whole scene should be captured on camera one as well and much more clearly than camera two. Camera one has a clear shot of both benches. If the FBI released the full tape from camera one, we could see the pipe bomber planting the bomb.
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So, somebody planted bombs outside the headquarters of this country's two main political parties. That would seem to be a big story, and yet no one ever mentions it again, including the FBI. In fact, the Bureau won't disclose any information about the suspect, not his height, weight, shoe size, anything. So, if they wanted to catch this person, wouldn't they be telling you all they can about who it is? But they're not. Why aren't they and what was Kamala Harris doing there? Why did she lie about being there? We can’t answer those questions. We should be able to.
Nor does anyone in authority want to talk about Ray Epps. Ray Epps, is of course, is the man who was caught on tape encouraging the crowd outside the Capitol, both on January 5 and 6, to commit felonies by rushing inside. Now, what's interesting is that the January 6 Committee, under public pressure, did in the end interview Ray Epps. Now, we don't have all of the committee's records about that interview. We should, but we don't. But some have been released and what they tell is a remarkable story.
In the testimony that we have, the committee coaches Ray Epps on how to answer questions about his involvement. "I was in the front with a few others. I also orchestrated it. I helped get people there."
Now, Epps admitted that in a text message to a relative on January 6. He's admitting crimes. He's never been even charged for those crimes. But what's so fascinating is that when those facts came up in his interview with the committee, someone on the committee responds this way, and we're quoting: "I just want to understand a little more your use of the word orchestrated. It sounds to me like at this point, when you sent this text, you had turned away in part because of seeing some things that you didn't agree with. Is that right? Like when you sent this, you were already on your way from the capital because of concerns of people taking it in a different direction. "
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Is that the most leading question ever asked in the history of a congressional hearing? Probably. And the whole interview goes on like this. Keep in mind, Ray Epps is one of the only people caught on camera that day encouraging others to break the law. He's one of the only ones and yet he's never been charged and the January 6 Committee was on his side.
Why was the committee and its members working so hard to help Ray Epps? Now, in his interview with the committee, Ray Epps said he didn't work for law enforcement Law enforcement – in a very specifically worded answer, clearly thought through ahead of time. The question is, did Ray Epps work or have any contact with any government agency?
Did he talk about January 6 before it happened with any employee of the U.S. government? We don't know. We do know that two years after January 6, long after an awful lot of other people have gone to jail for walking around the Capitol building, Ray Epps is still a free man. He's never been charged, much less imprisoned in solitary confinement like so many others. Why is that?
Well, let's just stop lying. At this point, it's pretty obvious why that is. But of course, they're still lying about it.
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