Maxwell Frost: Tucker Carlson’s Jan. 6 coverage makes ‘people feel like they can do it again’

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) says Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s sympathetic coverage this week of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack increases the risk for future violence because it creates a space “where people feel like they can do it again.”

In a clip from an interview on Showtime’s “The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth” shared exclusively with The Hill on Friday, the first-term lawmaker said that what Carlson has done with the 41,000 hours of surveillance footage that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gave him is “really dangerous.” 

“It creates a problem where if there’s not real accountability with people being sympathizers towards the insurrection, it puts us in a position where people feel like they can do it again,” Frost said. 

McCarthy has said he does not regret sharing the videos with Carlson, despite the bipartisan backlash that has followed his using the tapes to argue that the events of Jan. 6 were calmer than how they have been presented. McCarthy has voiced support for showing “transparency” on what happened during that day, even as multiple Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), denounced Carlson’s coverage. 

Carlson has consistently downplayed the violence that occurred during the Capitol riot and started airing parts of the tapes he received from McCarthy on Monday, claiming that they showed “mostly peaceful chaos.”

J. Thomas Manger, the chief of U.S. Capitol Police, slammed Carlson’s show as presenting “offensive and misleading conclusions” about the attack. Manger said Carlson “cherry-picked” the “calmer moments” from the insurrection and did not provide context about the violence that did happen before and after what he showed. 

Frost also criticized the new GOP probe of the House select committee that investigated the insurrection during the past session of Congress. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who is leading the House Republican investigation, has promised to hold hearings on the matter. 

Frost said House Democrats want to work on issues such as affordable housing, gun violence and climate change, but the GOP has prioritized investigations over addressing such issues. 

“The things that they brought up during the midterms — inflation, cost of living increasing, etcetera — they’re not working on it now,” Frost said. 

“The Circus” will air on Sunday at 8 p.m. on Showtime.