110 Comments

Go back a few years to the Obama years and the budget freeze that closed down about 15% of the federal government. Some veterans were pissed that a parking lot was closed off so they carried the barriers to the White House and threw them over the fence.

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Erick, last night on Tucker Carlson, Chansley’s lawyer was emphatic that he was never given access to see the tapes Tucker showed and that this was the first time he’d seen them. Do you stand by your comment?

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Ashli Babbitt wasn't A threat and she could’ve been stopped w/o being shot. She was unarmed breaking a window. Had she known the police were opening the doors snd ushering people in and providing tours she probably wouldn’t have bothered.

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Mar 9, 2023·edited Mar 9, 2023

Tucker at least accomplished one thing: providing compelling evidence that this was not an insurrection- just like you said. It was a bunch of loons with largely no strategy, doing reckless things. That does little to change their personal responsibility. But it does change the larger conversation about that day.

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Stay sane, Erick, and keep telling the truth.

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When you find yourself asking "am I the last sane person?" that's usually a sign that you should pause briefly and re-assess. Yes, hypocrisy exists on both sides, because both sides have imperfect humans. January 6th will be an emotional hot button for years to come and will be the source of dissent and dispute because it was chaotic, dynamic and large scale. Truth will continue to be elusive, even in the best of circumstances. It would have been far better for all if the J6 Committee had done a more thorough, even handed investigation that did not rely on clever editing tricks such as the Josh Hawley sprint and the omission of seeking answers to many questions. As I was listening to your show today, the woman who asked 'when are we going to demand that the elected officials start doing their jobs for all of us?' and your answer to that was well done. The J6 committee largely failed in that duty. That should be our focus, not whether or not a televlsion personality is being hypocritical. We should all demand more polity and truth and far less politics if we want to see things change.

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Mar 8, 2023·edited Mar 9, 2023

Being altogether disdainful of Tucker Carlson and Fox News, I wish I could poke holes in Erick's analysis. But I can't. It's spot on.

Nevertheless, my reading of American history is that our politics have almost always featured a healthy dose of hypocrisy on both sides of the political spectrum, both among politicians and in the press. Such may well be the nature of this beast that we call democracy, but be that as it may, we can survive mere hypocrisy.

What is unique in our time is the normalization of outright lying that would seem to be occurring on just one side of the political spectrum. Were any mainstream media figures caught basically admitting that their reporting (or commentary) was knowingly false or misleading, their careers would be in serious jeopardy. Not so at Fox News. And while most successful politicians have likely been less than truthful on occasion, be they Democrat or Republican, Democrats have yet to show a tolerance for the every-time-he-opens-his-mouth sort of lying that most Republicans have come to simply accept from Donald Trump. Even Republicans who don't accept it show a surprising level of tolerance for those who do.

In sum, to actually be caught lying still has consequences on the left that it no longer seems to have on the right.

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Thank you Erick for your insight. This country is in distress.

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Give the Jan 6th info to everyone, left and right. No cherry picking of scenes for an agenda.

Declassify everything from the Kennedy assassination and let the blame fall where it belongs.

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You stay you Erick - there are other sane folks out here that appreciate your candor

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You’re not the only one Erick. Tucker selectively chose the video of the shaman and didn’t show the rest. Shameful. I’ve been permabanned from every gop Reddit sub for trying to speak truth to my brethren.

I’m a person without a party.

Keep doing what you do.

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I have not watched Tucker Carlson so I cannot comment on the video and his rendition. But from the beginning it was easy to understand that this was not insurrection, but a riot that got out of control. Some of the rioters are guilty of what they were charged with, and some were just dumbfounded tourists - like the dog that finally caught the car was chasing - now what?

But the provocative thing I'm going to say is that this was good for the country. Those here in Washington (where I live) need to have some fear of the people. I'm glad this was traumatic for them. It may help wake them up that the bubble they live in could burst at any moment. I'm not sure if it was Thomas Jefferson who said it, but it holds true. "When people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have liberty."

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You know, I actually pulled up some of the Tucker Carlson footage on Youtube just to see for myself. I don't really need Carlson's play-by-play. I can see with my own eyes that this is not insurrectionist, nor a protest on any level near insurrection. But now we have Republican members of congress making formal statements that this was in fact an insurrection, and condemning Carlson's efforts to demonstrate otherwise. But I can see for myself. It reminds me of the old joke. Was it Groucho? "So, who are ya gonna believe? Me, or your own eyes?"

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You are right on point Erick. The truth matters and both sides need to get back to that simple principle.

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"Carlson is selectively editing videos to suggest the braying bison-helmeted jackass did nothing wrong."

No he is not doing this. Not at all. He is showing the Dem media produced video and the raw footage he was given access to. He is delivering contrast and the alternative narrative. Since you jumped on the insurrection track, it bothers you.

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My problem Erick is I don’t trust the media the government or pundits Politicians are even worse . So how can we as a Nation move on from this not knowing what’s true or half true or completely false. The speaker of the house hand picked the J6 committee since she didn’t like the choice of the Republicans. So how can we trust the outcome of a investigation none of this would hold up in a court of law They were wrong to break in to the Capitol the Authorities in charge were derelict in not having security in place they knew this was going to happen a riot is a riot left or right prosecute them all

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