House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in early 2023 gave Carlson exclusive access to 44,000 hours of security surveillance video from the day of the Capitol attack. Carlson subsequently aired portions of it on his show to illustrate his own narrative concerning the event, painting it as "peaceful chaos" and condemning other media outlets as untruthful when portraying the attack as violent. The family of Brian Sicknick, a United States Capitol Police officer who died the day following the Capitol attack, and Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger condemned the segment, which also received reproach from Democratic and Republican politicians, including from the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell. Carlson's presentation included video of Jacob Chansley — the "QAnon Shaman" — walking the halls of Congress, depicting him as a peaceful demonstrator being escorted by police who was unjustly prosecuted and incarcerated. Days after the presentation, Justice Department prosecutors stated in a court filing that the four minutes of video showed only a brief part of Chansley's activity and omitted his earlier incriminating behavior, concluding, "Chansley was not some passive, chaperoned observer of events for the roughly hour that he was unlawfully inside the Capitol."
