By making public more than 44,000 hours of security tapes from January 6th, House Speaker Mike Johnson has taken a big step toward openness. The public can now view these tapes online in the CHA Subcommittee Reading Room. This is different from what former Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to do but failed to do.
The public has been pushing for more access to video of the Capitol breach, and these tapes were finally made public. Some of the video shows protesters walking quietly through Congress, which may make the first stories about what happened less reliable [1].
This move is likely to start a new round of heated political discussion about January 6th and what happened afterward. Johnson wants millions of Americans, criminal suspects, public interest groups, and the media to be able to see for themselves what happened that day by making the tapes public [1].
It shows a willingness to put more light on what happened on January 6th that the tapes were made public. As more people learn about the events that were kept secret, it will be interesting to see how their thoughts and talks change.
Now that the tapes are out there, people will have a rare chance to form their own opinions about what happened. The new discussion might help us understand the complicated events surrounding the Capitol breach better.
In the end, the official release of the January 6 tapes is a big step toward openness and responsibility. As the country continues to think about what happened that day, this move could be a key step toward rebuilding and moving on.
