Democrats are now beginning to deal with the fallout of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) decision to release all the video footage related to the January 6, 2021, riot at the United States Capitol building. While folks on the right lauded the move as a bold step toward transparency, Democrats are crying foul and already trying to salvage their narrative that the event was some huge plan to take over the United States government.
During an appearance on CNN, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), one of the more prominent House Democrats who spearheaded the Select Committee to use the riot as a political cudgel against former President Donald Trump and his supporters, chimed in on the news.
Host Wolf Blitzer asked Raskin why he believes Johnson agreed to release the footage. The lawmaker responded by claiming that he is “clearly on the run from the extreme MAGA caucus, [Rep.] Chip Roy, and the strongest pro-Trump elements.”
Raskin continued, intimating that Johnson is close to being deposed as was former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
I mean, he was only able to get through his continuing resolution proposal because of Democratic votes. And I think they're saying he's got two strikes of three they're going to give him. So, he's already looking at a motion to vacate. So, this was clearly an effort to placate the right-wing, which has been making this absurd demand for a very long time. And so now we have on a totally, unilateral, partisan basis, the Republicans caving in and opening up to the world what they allowed Tucker Carlson to come see.
Raskin argued that Carlson “did his best to torture out tens of thousands of hours of footage…which…went nowhere.”
The lawmaker then reiterated that he and his anti-Trump colleagues “had more than 1,000 witnesses” who discussed the riot with the committee.
Even more hilarious is that Raskin claimed that releasing the footage is “truly a security risk,” and that House Republicans are somehow “giving a diagram to future insurrectionists and terrorists and anybody who wants to invade our body.”
By looking at Raskin’s comments, you can already see how hard it will be for Democrats to complain about the release of the footage. The notion that being transparent and allowing Americans to see what occurred on that day is somehow a security risk that will give future “insurrectionists” a roadmap for carrying out another riot is absurd. If people want to see what the Capitol looks like, they can easily travel there and see most of it.
The real issue for Raskin is the same as for Democrats, and their close friends and allies in the elite media: The narrative is breaking down. Even the little bit of the new footage that I have seen so far shows that J6 was no “insurrection.” I believe that when all of the video recordings are published, people will see that most of those who were at the Capitol building were not violent. Most were strolling through the building, with Capitol Police officers doing the same.
Everyone knows that some of those present at the building engaged in violence. We have already seen that footage ad nauseam, thanks to Raskin, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and others seeking to weaponize the incident for political expediency. But now, people can see what the anti-Trumpers didn’t want us to see, which is what is getting Raskin’s goat. Too bad for them, right?