Speaker Johnson Releases Jan. 6 Footage

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R) has only been Speaker for a little more than three weeks, yet his term has already had to face multiple issues such as aid for Israel and the nation's spending bill. Now Rep. Johnson has released the Jan. 6 footage showing the violence that took place at the capitol.

Multiple Republicans have called for the release of the 44,000 hours of Jan. 6 footage for a long time. Many in the GOP believe that the release of the footage could change the narrative surrounding the violent attack that resulted in deaths and 138 injured police officers.

The protestors who enacted the riots were there to stop the certification of President Joe Biden (D) as the  46th President of the United States. Furthermore, many analysts and critics have blamed former president Donald Trump (R) for the attacks. The former president's critics claim that he provoked their actions by telling them to "fight" and not authorizing the National Guard to help prevent and stop the attacks.

Previously, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R) gave former Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive rights to the footage. The move between the two disgraced individuals was heavily criticized. However, the footage will now be made public over the course of several months. Various details will be edited to protect some of the identities of those in the footage, deter retaliation and for security purposes.

The House GOP has faced several challenges recently, and some see this move as a good thing for the party. Yet, other GOP congress members believe that the party is in trouble.

In an interview, Texas Representative Pete Sessions (R) spoke to Texas Politics about how the House GOP has had to wait on the Senate Democrats to get continuing resolutions (CR) passed.

Rep. Sessions stated that despite the Republicans holding the majority in the House, Democrats hold the majority in the Senate, and the House has had to “negotiate with the Senate” in order to get their bills passed.