Republican Promises to Release Secret Jan. 6 Footage if He Becomes Speaker

Representative Byron Donalds has promised to release footage of the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol if he becomes the next House speaker of the House.

Donalds, a Florida Republican and member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus is among nine GOP lawmakers seeking the speakership. His candidacy comes after weeks of turmoil among House Republicans, who have struggled to unite around a single candidate for their next leader after the ouster of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the beginning of October.

Donalds made a critical promise to conservatives during a Sunday interview on Fox & Friends Weekend, pledging to release videotapes of the riot, in which Donald Trump supporters violently protested the result of the 2020 presidential election. The former president had said the race was stolen because of widespread voter fraud, despite a lack of any evidence, and spoke to a large crowd on the Ellipse, urging his supporters to march on the Capitol.

"I will, absolutely," Donalds said when asked by show co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy if he would release "all of" the January 6 footage.

Newsweek reached out to Donalds' office for comment via email.

Conservatives have raised concerns about the legal system's treatment of the arrested rioters, questioning whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) targeted them for political reasons or has been too harsh in prosecuting them. More than 1,100 people who attended the riot have been charged with various counts, including entering a restricted federal building and assaulting officers.

Many Republicans have called for the Capitol's security tapes to be made public so people can decide for themselves what happened on January 6.

January 6 Tapes Key Issue for Speaker Hopefuls

The January 6 tapes have been a key sticking point for House conservatives as the Republican Conference strives to elect a speaker.

In January's race for the position, McCarthy pledged to release the footage while he tried to win over support from the most conservative members of the House. He upheld that promise by providing some tapes to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, drawing criticism even from some Republicans. He later said he planned to send footage to other networks but did not do so before his removal as speaker.

Conservative journalist Julie Kelly called out House Republicans for not releasing the tapes in a September 3 post on X (formerly Twitter).

"The pledge by GOP to release all the Jan 6 videos has been broken. I believed my involvement to make footage available was a temporary fix until staff could protect innocents from DOJ and thugs like Sedition Hunters. Now I see GOP has capitulated to DOJ and Capitol police," she wrote.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, previously faced backlash from conservatives for pivoting on the release of the tapes. She said in a September 4 X post that she stopped calling for their release because of concerns that facial recognition software would be used "to go after more vulnerable people."

Could Donalds Become the Next House Speaker?

Donalds faces a challenging path to become the next House speaker, as he must strike a balance between appealing to conservative hard-liners as well as moderates representing districts won by President Joe Biden, and he could risk alienating constituents by moving too far right.

This challenge is made more difficult by the Republicans' tight House majority. Any speaker candidate can afford to lose only four GOP defectors, assuming the person do not win support from any Democrats.

Thus far, Republicans have gone through McCarthy's removal and the selection of two potential speakers—House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Representative Jim Jordan, with neither gaining sufficient support. McCarthy was removed after setting off conservative outrage for working with the Democrats on a short-term government spending bill.

Scalise won an internal GOP Conference vote but removed himself from the race after conservatives refused to vote for him on the House floor. Jordan, meanwhile, failed to garner enough support from moderate Republicans, losing three votes on the floor.

Donalds has received support from both conservatives and other Republicans from Florida, but it remains unclear whether he will ultimately receive enough support to take up the House gavel.