People who have been demanding House Republicans release the thousands of hours of surveillance video detailing the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol might soon get their wish.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said Thursday on Sirius XM’s “The Wilkow Majority” the video will soon be released through a website of which any member of the public can access. The show’s host, Andrew Wilkow, posted a clip of Gaetz’s comments on social media platform X.
Earlier this year when he was House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., granted Tucker Carlson access to more than 40,000 hours of Capitol security footage from that day. McCarthy’s office reportedly said it was working out a way to make the footage more widely available, but nothing came of it.
McCarthy was ousted as speaker in early October, in an effort led by Gaetz and seven other Republicans, and new Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is facing pressure to make the footage available to the public.
“I can break some news with you,” Gaetz said. “You know, the way that the January 6 tapes will be released will be through a website where any member of the public can go and observe the videos that are being released. My expectation is they’re going to be released in tranches and that the first tranche of the tapes to be released will be in, you know, days, not weeks.”
In September, the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, which is the steward of the Jan. 6 footage, issued a policy where news outlets and Jan. 6 defendants could view the footage. The policy allowed qualified individuals to view footage using terminals overseen by the committee.
“House Republicans are continuing to deliver on our promise to bring transparency and accountability to the People’s House by increasing access to security footage of the U.S. Capitol from January 5th and 6th, 2021,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chair of the subcommittee, in a Sept. 1 news release.
“This announcement stands in stark contrast to the previous Democrat leadership, who blocked access to the footage and only showed carefully edited clips to the public.”
The Blaze reported Nov. 3 that its investigative reporter Steve Baker was working with Johnson’s office to release the footage. Blaze Media Editor-In-Chief Matthew Peterson said in a statement he could not confirm a report from conservative activist Ryan Fournier claiming all the footage would be released to Blaze News.
Newsmax reached out to the House Administration Committee for comment.
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