House Republican Promises to Release Jan. 6 Security Videos If He Becomes Speaker

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) (C), Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) (L), and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) (R) watch proceedings in the House Chamber during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Jan. 5, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A House Republican who is seeking the House speaker position said he would release all the Jan. 6 Capitol breach security footage, coming months after a batch of tapes were released to Fox News.

“I will, absolutely,” Mr. Donalds said when he was asked by Fox News co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy if he would release the entirety of the Jan. 6, 2021, footage. The Epoch Times contacted his office for more information.

Republicans have raised concerns about the Department of Justice’s treatment of individuals who were arrested over Jan. 6-related offenses, saying they have been mistreated or too harshly prosecuted or sentenced. More than 1,000 people who were charged in relation to the Capitol breach were charged with various crimes.

A number of Republicans have said that the Jan. 6 security tapes should be released in their entirety so the public can decide for themselves.

During the January race for the House speaker position, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was recently voted out of the position, had pledged to release the Jan. 6 footage. He provided some of the tapes to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who aired the footage in March and claimed that Democrats and federal officials have misled the public over the incident, saying it wasn’t a “violent insurrection” as some have described.

Since March, Mr. McCarthy has not released any more footage, and Mr. Carlson was ousted from Fox News in April over unclear reasons. Since then, the former Fox host has hosted a regular program on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Conservative-leaning journalist Julie Kelly wrote on X that House Republicans haven’t released any of the footage, alleging the GOP has gone back on its pledge.

“The pledge by GOP to release all the Jan 6 videos has been broken. I believed my involvement to make footage available was a temporary fix until staff could protect innocents from DOJ and thugs like Sedition Hunters. Now I see GOP has capitulated to DOJ and Capitol police,” she wrote on Sept. 3.

But there have been concerns about releasing the footage to the public, even among some House Republicans who have criticized the government over its treatment of the Jan. 6 suspects. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in September wrote that she hasn’t called for the release because there are concerns that facial-recognition tools would be used to target “more vulnerable people.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) talks to reporters as he heads from his office in the Rayburn House Office Building to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Oct. 18, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“I called for releasing the tapes and stopped doing so when it was explained to me that groups like sedition hunters would use facial recognition software to go after more vulnerable people,” Mrs. Taylor Greene wrote, responding to Ms. Kelly’s statement on X. “After seeing the horrific inhumane treatment of pretrial J6 defendants in the DC jail in 2021 and being one of the few members of congress that is against the persecution of J6’ers, I was afraid the DOJ would unjustly target more people.”

However, she later wrote that Republican supporters can also “use facial recognition” to go after “feds and/or provocateurs who were involved in J6 that the DOJ protects.”

“I’m all for releasing the tapes! Enough of this kabuki theater, it’s time to end this,” she added. “Everyone needs the truth and the weaponized government must be stopped.”

The statement by Mr. Donalds, a backer of former President Donald Trump who was elected in 2020, comes after House Republicans have failed to find a suitable nominee for the House speaker position after Mr. McCarthy’s ouster several weeks ago. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tried to secure enough votes to become speaker in the narrowly divided House but was unable to do so in multiple rounds of voting last week, coming after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) pulled out of the contest days before.

So far, at least nine House Republicans have announced they would be running for speaker, Reps. Jack Bergman of Michigan, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, Gary Palmer of Alabama, Austin Scott of Georgia, and Pete Sessions of Texas, along with Mr. Donalds.

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich criticized the House GOP for dragging their feet during a “Fox News Sunday” appearance and added that he wishes that women like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) were running.

Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), meanwhile, introduced a “unity pledge” late last week, which seeks Republicans to commit to supporting the “Speaker Designate elected by the House Republican Conference—regardless of who that candidate is—when their election proceeds to the House Floor.”

“I’m urging all my colleagues to join this pledge so we can move forward with electing a Speaker and get on with the people’s business,” Mr. Flood said in a statement. It’s not clear if any of the nine Republican candidates have signed it.