Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) handed over 44,000 hours of camera footage from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to fired Fox host Tucker Carlson. The move prompted many on both sides to ask why McCarthy refused to allow the public to see all of the footage for themselves.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) is now joining the effort for greater transparency. Writing for MSNBC.com, Ja'han Jones explained that it's the beginning of an internal battle cooking among the GOP.
It is part of an ongoing debate within the Republican Party about which conspiracy theory to use for Jan. 6. One is that the attackers were all Antifa. Another is that the FBI agents caused Trump supporters to storm the Capitol. A different one is that the event never happened at all, and it was possibly even a false flag.
New York Times Magazine reporter Robert Draper told CNN on Sunday that the conspiracy confusion was on full display in the fake hearing that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) hed in a dark, windowless room somewhere on Capitol Hill.
"It was like being in an upside-down world," said Draper of the mock-hearing. "And also, Jim, their narratives shapeshift, you know, even within a matter of seconds. Either the Jan. 6th — what took place there was basically peaceful, or it was violent but an Antifa kind of violence, or it was set up by the FBI, thus a feds problem. Basically, their point of view is that they are politically persecuted. There is a two-tier system of justice, but it's not the well-off whites versus people of color. It's the ruling class versus Trump supporters."