Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) posted on X a link to some of the surveillance footage from the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. He had announced Friday that more than 44,000 hours of video would eventually be posted to a “public website.” The batch of videos was released later in the day, with the rest expected to come periodically over the next several months.
“Follow the link below to view the January 6th tapes for yourself,” Johnson wrote on X Friday afternoon. “To restore America’s trust and faith in their Government we must have transparency. This is another step towards keeping the promises I made when I was elected to be your Speaker.” The post included a link to the CHA Subcommittee Reading Room website, where five pages of videos – most of which are around ten minutes long – can be found.
(Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
House Republicans had pushed for months to see the footage made public, and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) even cited as part of his reason for ousting former-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who had promised to release the videos in order to secure enough votes to win the gavel. He did not, however. Johnson, who made the same promise, did – and perhaps he did so just in the nick of time. The current speaker drew the ire of some of his fellow Republicans by voting with Democrats for the continuing resolution (CR) earlier in the week push the government funding issue into next year. Gaetz had warned that Johnson might face a “similar fate” to his predecessor should he fail to pass a single-subject spending bill in time to avoid the shutdown.
*To watch the videos for yourself, click here.
