[guest post by Dana]

Remember this:

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy sent a letter to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021…demanding that it preserve all records and transcripts and vowing to hold hearings next year on the security failures that led to the US Capitol breach.

After winning the House majority earlier this month, Republicans made it clear they will prioritize investigating President Joe Biden and his administration on a variety of fronts. The latest warning from McCarthy, who is vying to be House speaker, signals that Republicans may also use some of their time in the next Congress attempting to rewrite the narrative of the insurrection.

“It is imperative that all information collected be preserved not just for institutional prerogatives but for transparency to the American people,” wrote McCarthy, who did not comply with a subpoena to appear before the committee. “The American people have a right to know that the allegations you have made are supported by the facts.”

Interestingly, when the opportunity arose for McCarthy to give access to a trove of Jan. 6 security tapes, rather than Congress or investigators being the recipients, the Speaker opted to give that access to none other than…Tucker Two-Faced Carlson. Axios has the exclusive:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Fox News’ Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot, McCarthy sources tell me.

Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks…Carlson has repeatedly questioned official accounts of 1/6, downplaying the insurrection as “vandalism.”

Now his shows — “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News, and “Tucker Carlson Today” and “Tucker Carlson Originals” on the streaming service Fox Nation — have a massive trove of raw material. Carlson told me: “[T]here was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret.”

“If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6. By definition, this video will reveal it. It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that.”

While Carlson’s involvement with the tapes began in early February, we learned only last week that the Fox News host, along with his colleagues and Fox executives, had accepted that Trump lost the 2020 election. However, they were nonetheless happy to go on air and hypocritically peddle Trump’s election lies and privately disparage their election conspiracy guests. Integrity meant (and means) nothing to Carlson, et al. What mattered (and matters) to these grifters is making bank via happy viewers and high ratings. That’s it. Everything else is superfluous.

The hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, as well as others at the company, repeatedly insulted and mocked Trump advisers, including Sidney Powell and Rudolph W. Giuliani, in text messages with each other in the weeks after the election, according to a legal filing on Thursday by Dominion Voting Systems…

“Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” Mr. Carlson wrote to Ms. Ingraham on Nov. 18, 2020.

Ms. Ingraham responded: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.”

Mr. Carlson continued, “Our viewers are good people and they believe it,” he added, making clear that he did not.

On Nov. 12, in a text chain with Ms. Ingraham and Mr. Hannity, Mr. Carlson pointed to a tweet in which a Fox reporter, Jacqui Heinrich, fact-checked a tweet from Mr. Trump referring to Fox broadcasts and said there was no evidence of voter fraud from Dominion.

“Please get her fired,” Mr. Carlson said. He added: “It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” Ms. Heinrich had deleted her tweet by the next morning.

So this is who has exclusive access to 41,000 Jan. 6 security tapes. And this is the greatest irony of all:

Tucker is now going to make money off exclusive J6 footage that was property of the US Congress and gifted to him by Kevin McCarthy. He will literally profit off footage of an incident that he has lied about for two years. He will also cover up parts that don’t fit his narrative.

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) February 21, 2023

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

What a surprise, and a fine one at that. Rather than meeting with President Zelensky someone on the border with Poland or skipping it altogether, President Biden met with Ukraine’s president in the capital city of Kyiv, thus sending a message to the world – and especially to Vladimir Putin – that the United States will continue to support Ukraine in its battle to defeat Russia. This is especially notable given that there was obviously a real risk in the visit (as the AP informs us: The U.S. president traveling to a conflict zone where the U.S. or its allies do not have control over the airspace and on top of that, our only military presence in Ukraine is just a small detachment of Marines guarding the embassy in Kyiv).

From the White House:

As the world prepares to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, I am in Kyiv today to meet with President Zelenskyy and reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong.

Today, in Kyiv, I am meeting with President Zelenskyy and his team for an extended discussion on our support for Ukraine. I will announce another delivery of critical equipment, including artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air surveillance radars to help protect the Ukrainian people from aerial bombardments. And I will share that later this week, we will announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine. Over the last year, the United States has built a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific to help defend Ukraine with unprecedented military, economic, and humanitarian support – and that support will endure.

President Zelensky’s Twitter feed has a nice video of the welcome and introductions:

Historic. Timely. Brave. I welcomed @POTUS in Kyiv as Russian full-scale aggression approaches its one-year mark. I am thankful to the U.S. for standing with Ukraine and for our strong partnership. We are determined to work together to ensure Ukraine’s victory. pic.twitter.com/EPtH3fLWWD

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 20, 2023

Details of the discussion between presidents about continued aid and weapons from the U.S.:

In Kyiv, Biden announced an additional half-billion dollars in U.S. assistance — on top of the more than $50 billion already provided — for shells for howitzers, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and other aid but no new advanced weaponry.

Ukraine has also been pushing for battlefield systems that would allow its forces to strike Russian targets that have been moved back from frontline areas, out of the range of HIMARS missiles that have already been delivered. Zelenskyy said he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before.” But he did not detail any new commitments.

So how did Russia react to President Biden’s visit to Kyiv? Although Moscow was notified in advance of Biden’s impending visit ( “for deconfliction purposes” ), they were less than happy about being deeply humiliated before the world:

Meanwhile in Russia: lots of long faces in the studio. pic.twitter.com/HRyNFU03pq

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) February 20, 2023

I’m glad that President Biden made the journey to Kyiv before his meeting with President Duda of Poland. His presence in the capital city standing next to President Zelensky sent a powerful statement to the world that U.S. support for Ukraine has not and will not waver as they wage a brave battle to drive out the invaders. Also, I can only imagine what a major morale booster it was for Ukrainian troops and for the Ukrainian people as well. With that, we’ll have to wait and see if the U.S. will opt to provide Ukraine with the much-needed modern fighter jets that President Zelensky has requested. EU members are considering sending them to Ukraine, and Italy has said it is prepared to “send up to five fighter jets to Ukraine if other Western allies start doing so,” they just don’t want to be the first ally to send them “for political reasons.”

–Dana