He was dressed in full body armor carrying zip ties as he climbed over the seats in the chambers of Congress. Why would someone bring zip ties to the U.S. Capitol? Was he laying cable? No. He came to arrest members of Congress.
But when faced with the facts of the indictment for "Zip Tie Guy" Eric Munchel, Fox News host Tucker Carlson explained that the man did nothing wrong.
Carlson said: "They came from unfashionable zip codes. Made it all the way to Washington, D.C. They wandered through the Capitol like it was their building or something. They didn't have guns but extremely dangerous ideas talking about the Constitution and the rights. Neither Lisa [Eisenhart] nor her son committed violence but walked into what we used to refer to as the People's House, but Joe Biden's convinced a trial judge that she was a threat to the republic and the son was a would-be martyr. Keep in mind, these are people whose crime is trespassing in the Capitol. Some perspective please."
As a fact check on Carlson's statement, Joe Biden didn't convince a trial judge anything. Eric Munchel was arrested on Jan. 10, while President Donald Trump was still in the presidency. Trump's Justice Department released a statement on Munchel on Jan. 10 as well. Carlson isn't big on facts, however.
The "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary,'" a lawyer said about Carlson during a lawsuit last year.
He came unarmed, Carlson also said. That might not be true either.
"Photos depicting his presence show a person who appears to be Munchel carrying plastic restraints, an item in a holster on his right hip, and a cell phone mounted on his chest with the camera facing outward, ostensibly to record events that day," Trump's Justice Department said in a statement. It's unclear what was in that holster. It could have been a gun or a taser or bear spray. We know it wasn't "Silly String."
Jansing noted that the Associated Press reported that Munchel also recorded the storming of the Capitol and that video also shows him and Eisenhart stashing weapons in a bag before entering the building.
"So, while we don't normally play his sound, we wanted to emphasize that there is an active movement to defend or play down the actions of those that attacked the Capitol," said Jansing. "The events of that day were serious, so serious there's a movement today in that federal lawsuit against Donald Trump, ten more Democratic members of Congress joined the colleague Benny Thompson and the NAACP alleging that the former president incited a mob to attack the Capital on January 6."
See the full report in the video below:
Tucker Carlson lies about Jan 6 attack www.youtube.com
