The backlash to Tucker Carlson’s claims that the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol was “mostly peaceful” reached a crescendo Wednesday as the White House, in a rare personal rebuke, announced “Tucker Carlson is not credible.”
“We agree with the chief of the Capitol Police and the wide range of bipartisan lawmakers who have condemned this false depiction of the unprecedented, violent attack on our Constitution and the rule of law — which cost police officers their lives,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
“We also agree with what Fox News’s own attorneys and executives have now repeatedly stressed in multiple courts of law: that Tucker Carlson is not credible,” Bates added, referring to testimony stemming from the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox that David Clark, a senior vice president at Fox News, does not consider Carlson a credible source of news.
On Tuesday, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said Carlson’s Monday night report about the attack was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions.” Even Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have condemned the Fox News anchor for his claims.
Democrats have called on the White House and others to boycott Fox News and Senator Chuck Schumer urged Fox not to air a second night of Carlson’s report about the attack on the Capitol, a request that the news network did not heed.
Fox News did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on the White House statement. On Tuesday the network released a statement blaming Dominion for “using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has also come under fire for giving Carlson exclusive access to more than 40,000 hours of footage from Capitol Police security cameras from the day of the attack. Carlson chose to focus on some of the quieter moments to further his claim that no serious harm was done by the mob who broke into the Capitol Building.
The family of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Hill officer who died as a result of injuries suffered in the Jan. 6 attack, also condemned Carlson on Tuesday.
