I watched the Monday evening Tucker Carlson show with great interest.

Tucker and his team of technicians had been given access to the January 6 tapes of the so-called insurrection.  Out of these hours of video footage, Tucker chose a few snippets in order to make the following points:

• Several hundred of those who stormed the capitol that day were malicious troublemakers who fought with police and did damage to the building, but there were video tapes showing that most of those who entered the building were peaceful.  They wandered around the place taking photographs and acting much like regular tourists.  There was no indication of any organized effort to overthrow the government, and the protesters had no firearms – not even the violent ones.

• There were claims in the press and by some Democrat leaders that five Capitol Police officers were slain that day.  That turned out to be false reporting.  One officer, Brian Sicknick, was said to have been killed by a blow to the head with a fire extinguisher.  Tucker showed footage showing Sicknick walking in the capitol building sometime after the rioting was over.  Even after they learned he had died of natural causes, the Democrats elevated him to martyrdom and accused the Republicans of being his killers.

• Other tapes were run showing the activities of QAnon Shaman, the fellow wearing the odd headdress topped with horns.  He is seen being escorted through the building by Capitol Police officers.  There is no evidence of any confrontation or destructive act on QAnon’s part, but he was later sentenced to 41 months in Federal prison.  That sentence appears excessive for such a non-violent crime.

On the day following Carlson’s program  there were screams of outrage from Senator Schumer.  He accused Tucker Carlson of being a liar and a menace to democracy.  He urged the owner of Fox to ban him from the network.

My thoughts?  Yes, thus far Tucker Carlson has given us only a small selection from the January 6 tapes.  I eagerly await more revelations. 

There is no doubt that Tucker is very selective in what he chooses to show us.  Undoubtedly, he has a point of view.   But the January 6 Committee also had a point of view, and they edited their release of  January 6 videos accordingly.  They wanted to hang Trump.

I’m eager for a bit of balance. 

I believe the January 6 affair was overhyped.  Yes, it was an ugly riot,  but it was neither an  insurrection nor a threat to the Republic. The Democrats seized upon it as a way to attack Republicans and destroy Donald Trump. They will fight viciously to defend their narrative of the event.