Fox News host Tucker Carlson spent part of his Wednesday night show delegitimizing a Black Capitol Police officer who defended the building from the pro-Trump mob on January 6.
The officer in question, Harry Dunn, is slated to testify before the first hearing of the January 6 committee next week. He gained national attention for sharing his experience of the insurrection, during which he said he was called the n-word more than a dozen times.
“Dunn will pretend to speak for the country’s law enforcement community, but it turns out Dunn has very little in common with your average cop,” Carlson said. “Dunn is an angry left-wing political activist.”
Dunn’s lawyers, Mark Zaid and David Laufman, blasted the comments in a Thursday statement.
“Our client has served 13 years in law enforcement and on January 6, 2021, fought against an insurrectionist violent crowd – no doubt many of them Carlson’s supporters – to protect the lives of our elected officials, including Vice President Mike Pence,” they wrote.
Of Dunn’s upcoming testimony, they added that “the last thing Carlson wants is for the truth to emerge of what happened that day and why.”
The first meeting of the January 6 committee, currently only made up of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) picks, is scheduled for July 27. Dunn will testify alongside three other officers, all of whom will give their firsthand accounts of what happened during the insurrection.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has pulled all five of his appointees from the committee after Pelosi vetoed two of them, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN). In a very loud press conference, McCarthy insisted that Republicans would run their own investigation. He did not mention that at least one Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), is already serving on the Jan. 6 committee.
Cheney expressed approval of Pelosi’s actions on Wednesday.
“She objected to two,” Cheney told reporters. “One who may be a material witness to events that lead to that day, that led to January 6, the other who disqualified himself by his comments over the last 24 hours demonstrating he’s not taking this seriously.”
Banks released a statement upon McCarthy’s selecting him, saying that Pelosi had established the committee “solely to malign conservatives and to justify the Left’s authoritarian agenda.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told a CNN reporter Thursday that Pelosi is considering appointing Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to the committee as well, though she’s still undecided. Both Cheney and Kinzinger have become ostracized from their party for speaking out against former President Donald Trump and the insurrection.
Pelosi did approve McCarthy’s other three selections, including Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) who voted against certifying the Electoral College results in the 2020 election. But McCarthy pulled all five, saying that none will serve if Banks and Jordan can’t.
“They had made statements and taken actions that I think would impact the integrity of the committee,” Pelosi said of the two at her Thursday press conference. “It’s my responsibility as Speaker of the House to make sure we get to the truth on this. And will not let their antics stand in the way of that.”
