Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for giving Fox News host Tucker Carlson access to surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.
McCarthy made available thousands of hours of surveillance footage to Carlson, who said his team is spending the week at the Capitol looking at the video and preparing to reveal their findings to his viewers.
Much of the footage has not been seen by the public.
"The speaker is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11," Schumer said in a Wednesday letter to Senate Democrats.
"The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected and its public release would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch and allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded."
Schumer also said McCarthy's move will encourage people who believe then-President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election due to voter fraud in several battleground states.
"Giving someone as disingenuous as Tucker Carlson exclusive access to this type of sensitive information is a grave mistake by Speaker McCarthy that will only embolden supporters of the Big Lie and weaken faith in our democracy," Schumer wrote.
Schumer wrote that he believes McCarthy agreed to let Carlson review the footage in order "to get the votes he needed from the MAGA wing of the House Republican Conference to become speaker."
"The speaker — nor any elected official — does not have the right to jeopardize the safety of senators nor Senate and Capitol staff for their own political purposes. Period. Full stop," Schumer said.
Other Democrats slammed McCarthy for giving Carlson access to the videos.
"It's a shocking development that brings in both political concerns but even more importantly, security concerns," said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., a chief counsel during President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.
"It is not lost on anyone that the one person that the speaker decides to give hours and hours of sensitive secret surveillance footage is the person who peddled a bogus documentary trying to debunk responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot from Donald Trump onto others."
Carlson told viewers on Monday that he will begin airing some of the footage next week.
"We believe that access is unfettered," Carlson said. "We believe we have secured the right to see whatever we want to see."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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