“Jan. 6 is being used as a pretext to strip millions of Americans, disfavored Americans, of their core constitutional rights.”
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Fox News host Tucker Carlson poses in a Fox News Channel studio in New York on March 2, 2017. (AP)
Tucker Carlson film falsely claims Jan. 6 is ‘pretext to strip millions’ of ‘constitutional rights’
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The Justice Department is prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters on charges of entering restricted federal property, assaulting police officers, and other criminal activity at or near the U.S. Capitol, often using the rioters’ own social media postings as proof of participation.
There is no evidence that the government response to the Jan. 6 insurrection is a "pretext to strip millions of Americans" who voted for former President Donald Trump of their "core constitutional rights," experts said. About 650 people have been arrested, and they are subject to the due process rights afforded to anyone in the U.S. who is charged with a crime.
The vast majority of the Jan. 6 defendants arrested through the fall of 2021 have been released from custody pending trial. Their treatment has been nowhere near the same as what terrorists faced after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, experts said.
In the first part of Tucker Carlson’s controversial and conspiratorial documentary series attempting to rewrite the events of Jan. 6, the Fox News host claimed that the attack on the U.S. Capitol is being used as a front to justify a "purge" of Donald Trump voters and a new war on terror.
The series started airing Nov. 1 on Fox Nation, Fox News’ subscription streaming service. It was produced as part of a multiyear deal Carlson signed to make specials for Fox Nation, and it was co-written by Scooter Downey, who previously directed films for far-right figures. On Fox News’ flagship morning show, "Fox & Friends," Carlson defended the series as "rock-solid factually."
Yet the first installment of the three-part documentary, titled "Patriot Purge," advances several conspiracy theories about the insurrection, including that the violence of the day was spurred on by left-wing instigators and agent provacateurs in disguise, and that the siege may have been a trap orchestrated by the FBI. It also includes sympathetic interviews with conservatives involved in the day’s events, such as "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander.
The film opens with a video montage juxtaposing footage and commentary related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo Bay and Islamic terrorism with footage and commentary about Jan. 6 and the government’s prosecution of the rioters. Elijah Schaffer of BlazeTV, a conservative outlet, is heard describing the Jan. 6 charges as "political persecution."
A little more than two minutes in, Carlson took over the screen, saying:
"In the years after 9/11, the media and the national security state used exaggerated threats and outright deception to associate certain ideas with certain events. This was the first war on terror. Now, it’s happening again.
"The very same corrupt interests in Washington that pushed the Iraq War under false pretenses are now pushing the lie of a domestic white terror. They are tying white nationalist terrorism to Trump voters. They’re tying Jan. 6 to 9/11. They’re tying millions of law abiding Americans to al-Qaida and ISIS. Jan. 6 is being used as a pretext to strip millions of Americans — disfavored Americans — of their core constitutional rights, and to defame them as domestic terrorists."
Carlson provided no evidence to explain how "millions of Americans" are getting stripped of their "core constitutional rights." Regardless, the claim is far from accurate. And the hundreds of charges brought after Jan. 6 were handed down to people who broke laws as they stormed the Capitol, clashed with police and disrupted congressional proceedings in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results. Most were Trump supporters.
Supporters of President Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP)
"I’m not aware of anyone being stripped of constitutional rights because of alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, let alone ‘millions’ of people," said David Alan Sklansky, professor of law and faculty co-director of the Criminal Justice Center at Stanford Law School.
Fox News did not offer a comment for this fact-check.
Nine months after the violent and deadly attack, the Justice Department has arrested about 650 people for involvement, including on charges related to destroying or stealing property, carrying firearms or other weapons, assaulting officers, obstructing official proceedings, and conspiracy. The case details are often spelled out in publicly available arrest warrants turned over to judges.
More than 85% of those people were charged in part using evidence from their own or others’ social media accounts, according to George Washington University. Some live streamed their participation in the day’s events, while others defended or boasted about it on social media.
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