On Monday, the 53-year-old conservative disclosed surveillance footage from the riots that he was given privileged access to last month by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mr Carlson reminded his audience that other media outlets lied about the incident, declaring that majority of the protesters were benign, calling them “sightseers” not “insurrectionists”.
“The footage does not depict an ongoing insurgency or riot,” he stated. “Rather, it depicts police leading people through the facility, including the now-famous QAnon Shaman.”
In reaction, senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, among others, stated it was a “mistake for Fox News to depict [the riots] in this way”.
At a press conference, Mr McConnell sided with Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger, who accused Mr Carlson of spreading “offensive and inaccurate conclusions” about the insurgency.
Several Republicans, like Senator Thom Tillis, called the remarks “bull****,” according to NBC.
Senator Mitt Romney went on to say: “You can’t hide the truth by arbitrarily selecting a few minutes from tapes and claiming that’s what happened. It’s ridiculous. It’s absurd.”
Over 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack. Only 60 persons pleaded guilty to attacking law enforcement officers, despite the fact that 140 police were assaulted.
Mr McCarthy presented Mr Carlson with 44,000 hours of security film as he was struggling to garner votes to win the election for US Speaker, which went to the 15th round of voting owing to Republican Party differences.
The video bolstered former president Donald Trump’s narrative that the riots – in which five people were killed – were “simple protests” that “went out of control”.
Mr Carlson also claimed on his show that Democrats lied about the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes and died a day later from natural reasons.
Mr Sicknick was seen walking about within the Capitol after being attacked by a mob in a video shown on Fox News. “They knew he wasn’t slain by the mafia, but they still claimed it,” Mr Carlson explained.
Mr Carlson’s activities were described as “a reckless, despicable attempt to destabilise our democracy and distort the history of the biggest attack on our constitution since the Civil War” by Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer.
He went on to say that Mr McCarthy was “every bit as responsible as Mr Carlson” for sending thousands of hours of material to the popular news channel.
A Fox News spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
