Cuomo Takes Aim at Carlson Over J6 Footage

(IntegrityPress.org) – Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo sat down with former Fox News regular Tucker Carlson to hash out some issues over a nearly two hour conversation. The men discussed a variety of topics, including the power of conversation, the controversy surrounding his elder brother Andrew Cuomo, media coverage regarding the pandemic, and January 6. Cuomo suggested that Carlson “cherry-picked” J6 footage after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made thousands of hours available to Carlson exclusively in early 2023.

Carlson was removed from his show at Fox News as part of the Dominion lawsuit settlement whereas Chris Cuomo was fired from CNN due in part to his relationship with his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo resigned after allegations of inappropriate behavior with women came forward; the allegations were ultimately dropped with no criminal or civil charges.

McCarthy gave Fox News 44,000 hours of security footage from that day, much of which Carlson used to exculpate Jacob Chansley, aka the Qanon Shaman. Chansley was highlighted as a particularly egregious example of the Capitol rioters. His costume and veteran status made him a lightning rod for the Democrats and the corporate press who argued that the riot was an attempt at insurrection, or violently seizing control of the government.

Carlson showed footage of Chansley being escorted around the Capitol by uniformed officers. In some cases, they unlocked doors for him. Chansley never did anything violent, and shortly after Carlson aired the footage the feds reduced Chansley’s sentence and released him from prison.

Nevertheless, Cuomo accused Carlson of “cherry-picking” the footage. Cherry-picking is a manipulative attempt at spinning data by only selecting the “cherries” that you want to include in the final presentation. Many argued at the time that the January 6 Select Committee was cherry-picking footage to make their case that the events of J6 were a violent attempted insurrection, whereas more neutral observations tend to indicate it was a riot where only a very small percentage of the people committed acts of violence or property damage and no one was armed.