In politics, currying favor can take many forms. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to give Tucker Carlson exclusive access to a mound of security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol is one such attempt.
McCarthy is trying to woo — or at least placate — one of his highest-profile critics in the conservative commentary world. Carlson, a major star at Fox News, has at times accused the GOP leader of being a closet Democrat.
McCarthy says he is releasing the 42,000 hours of Capitol Police security videos to Carlson in an effort to be transparent. If that were truly his motivation, McCarthy would be releasing the footage to all the news media from the start. Instead, he is giving Carlson and the Republican-friendly network first dibs to put their slant on what the footage shows.
That McCarthy would make such an offering shows how insecure he feels in his job.
