by Former President Donald Trump praised incoming House Speaker Mike Johnson after announcing the public release of the Jan. 6 tapes.
“Congratulations to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson for having the courage and fortitude to release all of the J6 tapes, which will clearly reveal what really happened on January 6th!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday. A subcommittee on Jan. 6 wrote in its final report for 2022 that Mr. Trump was the “central cause” of the rioting events on Capitol Hill.
Mr. Johnson announced the decision earlier Friday, saying access to the video “will give millions of Americans, accused criminals, public interest organizations and the media the opportunity to see for themselves what happened that day, instead of relying on interpretation of a small group of government officials'.
The tapes are available on the House Administration Committee website. Speaker Johnson said “virtually all the footage” would be added, more than 40,000 hours of tapes from the violent uprising. All videos are expected to be available by Monday (November 20).
It also specified that the individuals' faces would be blurred to “prevent any individuals from being targeted for retaliation.”
The former president joined a number of Republican members of Congress in celebrating Mr Johnson's latest move.
Roger Stone He wrote: “AFTER ALL.”
Illinois Representative Mary Miller He wrote: “The American people have a right to see this video after being lied to by the Pelosi Witch Hunt Committee on January 6th.”
South Carolina Representative Jeff Duncan excelled Mr. Johnson's “transparency,” adding that “Americans should be able to see for themselves the evidence, or lack thereof, and make their own decisions.”
The speaker's decision to release the tapes comes after a series of controversies over the release of the video. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave some of the tapes to then-Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, sparking backlash from Democrats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries denounced the move at the time. He wrote in a letter: “The apparent transfer of the video represents a flagrant breach of security that endangers the hard-working women and men of the United States Capitol Police who bravely defended our democracy with their lives on the line in that fatal day”.
Republicans included Agents Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene On the other hand, they have long been asking for the tapes to be released.
