US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Republicans should be ashamed of supporting an attempt by Fox News to downplay the seriousness of the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress by a mob of Donald Trump supporters.
“More than 140 officers were injured on January 6th. I’ve said it before: How dare anyone minimize or deny the hell they went through?” Biden tweeted. “I hope House Republicans feel ashamed for what was done to undermine our law enforcement.”
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Biden expressed support for the Capitol Hill police, whose chief has accused Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson of manipulating video footage of an unprecedented assault following Trump’s election defeat.
In a statement, Capitol Police Chief Thomas Munger said Carlson’s show that aired this week was “filled with outrageous and misleading inferences.”
The January 6 attack saw Trump supporters – Trump himself said for weeks that the election was not fair – smashing their way through police lines and marching through Congress. The attack prompted a pause in the constitutional process to certify Biden’s election victory, while hundreds of lawmakers fled for their lives.
Recently installed Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy handed over 41,000 hours of raw footage from Capitol security cameras to right-wing firebrand Carlson, who hosts a hugely popular evening show on Fox. Carlson then edited the footage to support his contention that the crowd was peaceful.
