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    House Republicans Renew Pledge to Release January 6 Footage as Discontent Grows, Dems Furious

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    Republican voters, particularly members of the MAGA base on (formerly known as Twitter) have been calling foul over Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s failure to release, or at least widely distribute, the footage from January 6th. Many on the right believe it will contain exculpatory evidence for those who were in the Capitol and so want it released, much to the chagrin of the Uniparty.

    Well, House Republicans are responding to that fiery online criticism by renewing their pledge to distribute the footage. In fact, the latest announcement claimed that members of the media would begin having access to it in September.

    Such is what was claimed in a newly released guidance document from the Committee on House Administration. That document said, in part, “Starting September 2023, the Committee will allow access to terminals by representatives of U.S. news outlets (not limited to press accredited through congressional galleries), Qualifying NonProfit Organizations, as well as defendants charged with crimes related to January 6, 2021 and their counsel, and individuals who were physically harmed on January 6, 2021 at the United States Capitol and their counsel.”

    Alongside the guidance document came a statement from Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk, who chairs the administration committee’s oversight subpanel. He said, “House Republicans are continuing to deliver on our promise to bring transparency and accountability to the People’s House by increasing access to security footage of the U.S. Capitol from January 5th and 6th, 2021.”

    Continuing with his statement, Rep. Loudermilk added, “This announcement stands in stark contrast to the previous Democrat leadership, who blocked access to the footage and only showed carefully edited clips to the public.”

    Predictably, the left is furious over the release of the tapes. Sen. Chuck Schumer, in a letter about the matter released in February, said, “The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected and its public release would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch and allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded.”

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    And while the left is mad that the tapes are being released to anyone, many on the MAGA right are upset that they are being selectively released to certain people, One furious poster on X. for example, said, “Coverup Kevin McCarthy is trying to lock the January 6 tapes away forever, just like the government continues to hide the JFK assassination files. End the coverup! Release it all!“

    Another poster said, “I just want to be extremely clear: Kevin McCarthy promised to release all of the January 6 footage to the public. Assuming this process to review tapes and request to release tiny slivers of it at their discretion is all the public can get, the promise has not been kept.”

    Joining them in criticizing McCarthy was Rep. Gaetz, who said, “No vote on Term Limits No vote on a balanced budget No plan to have individual appropriations bills considered No full release of J6 tapes No spending cut to raise the Debt Limit. Trump has been charged with 91 counts. We haven’t even subpoenaed Hunter Biden – or any Biden for that matter. I know it is the tendency of political leaders to self-preen, but the truth is that while some GOP House work has made positive reforms – it isn’t good enough. Not even close, actually. We are going to have to seize the initiative and make some changes.”