This week, Tucker Carlson of Fox News focused in the Monday edition of his show on conspiracy theories and deception about what happened on January 6 when a rampaging mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
While there, somebody — or a group of people — put up a gallows, and a portion of the crowd chanted in favor of hanging Mike Pence, who was then the vice president but was perceived as insufficiently loyal to the Trump cause. Officers were crushed, beaten with all sorts of implements makeshift or otherwise, and threatened with death, and members of the crowd broke windows, through which some of the rioters climbed, besides trying to get inside elsewhere, like in the tunnel in the area of the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. It was face-to-face physical fighting, for hours — but Carlson tried to discredit the idea of the seriousness of what happened, also disputing even the documented violence, some of which he dismissively called vandalism. Tom Manger, who’s leading the U.S. Capitol Police, subsequently fact-checked Carlson.
Among what he addressed is the idea that police were openly facilitating the entrance of riot participants into the Capitol or generally helping them once inside. Manger noted in an internal Capitol Police message how such actually reflected cops trying to grapple with their lack of resources. They simply wouldn’t have been able to pursue arrests or apprehensions on some widespread scale, instead using other approaches, and it’s already been documented several people detained on the day itself were subsequently released. “One false allegation is that our officers helped the rioters and acted as ‘tour guides,'” Manger said. “The Department stands by the officers in the video that was shown last night. I don’t have to remind you how outnumbered our officers were on January 6.” Manger pointed to “de-escalation tactics” he said responding officers attempted to use.
“[Carlson’s] program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video,” Manger added. “The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.” Manger also ripped the attempt to distance the death of officer Brian Sicknick from the assaults he faced during the Capitol riot. Although the direct cause of his death was determined to be what the medical examiner called natural causes, even that official noted the role other circumstances could have played in what took place.
Besides the physical security of the Capitol and its surroundings, Capitol Police are also involved in protection for members of Congress outside of Washington, D.C. Alongside the D.C. Metropolitan Police, personnel on the force Manger is now leading were those leading the response to the attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters in 2021. “TV commentary will not record the truth for our history books,” Manger said. “The justice system will. The truth and justice are on our side.” Check out Manger’s fact-check below:
The second half of MANGER's internal message to officers: pic.twitter.com/PdUSsPW5dT
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 7, 2023
