House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) praised House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for releasing the Jan. 6 tapes.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said that House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) recent decision to release over 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 Capitol incident footage was a praiseworthy and “important” step in uncovering the truth of what happened that day.
“It’s important for Americans to know the truth,” Mr. Turner said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked whether Mr. Johnson’s decision to release the tapes was a responsible one despite concerns expressed by the Capitol Police that the move could jeopardize security.
“This has been fraught with an unbelievable amount of misinformation and untruths,” Mr. Turner continued, adding, “When you see the footage yourself, it’s going to give you an understanding of what was there and what occurred that day.”
“Because we’re currently only depending on really partisan descriptions of what happened. Now the American people can see,” he continued, while adding that both members of the Democrat-dominated Jan. 6 Committee and some Republicans had “cherry-picked” the footage earlier in order to misrepresent what happened that day.
“I think it’s important that the Speaker has taken this step because now people can see the truth,” he added.
Mr. Johnson made waves when he announced several weeks ago that previously undisclosed Jan. 6 Capitol Police security video footage would be made public starting immediately and ramping up in coming months.
The footage shows the Capitol premises during the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when protesters upset by what they saw as a stolen 2020 presidential election made their way into the Capitol, some after battling with police.
However, some of the footage shows people casually walking beside police officers, who appear indifferent and let them saunter along.
Jan. 6 Tapes
Mr. Johnson said in a statement that 40,000 of the 44,000 hours of video from Capitol Hill taken on Jan. 6 would be posted online.
He said that around 5 percent of the footage would be withheld because it contains sensitive security information and that the faces of private citizens captured on video would be blurred out to protect them from retaliation.
By Tom Ozimek
