The Morning Briefing: Tucker Carlson's J6 Video Gain Is the Dem Media's Pain

Top O’ the Briefing

Happy Friday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Lester is always convinced that his dream of staging a Stephen Sondheim revue featuring animatronic hamsters is on the verge of happening.

Well, that was an interesting week.

Tucker Carlson’s tour de force with previously unseen J6 surveillance footage really set some people off, didn’t it? Who knew cable news could be fun again?

We’ve already covered the meltdown from the useless Republican squishes. Their weakness is expected.

Some interesting things beyond the expected triggering happened on the left as the drama unfolded. One of my favorites was Axios concern-trolling Republicans and urging them to move on from J6, which Athena wrote about. I’m pretty sure it’s not the Republicans who have been leg-humping this nonsense for two years.

Matt covered a couple of interesting stories yesterday, the first from the chairman of the House J6 Soviet Select Committee on Daddy Issues:

Another disturbing revelation comes from none other than Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chair of the January 6 Select Committee, who admitted that he never even reviewed any footage before it was shown to the public.

“I’m actually not aware of any member of the committee who had access [to the footage]. We had a team of employees who kind of went through the video,” he said.

That’s the play now? Insisting that they were clueless and left everything up to the interns? Thompson is a 2016 election denier, so he’s used to lying. I do think it will be fun to see them all play dumb if that’s what the talking point order ends up being.

Obviously, Thompson is trying to cover up the fact that it was his committee that was sitting on the footage. The notion that the committee members didn’t have access to the footage is preposterous.

Of course, the Democrats’ cable news hacks at CNN and MSNBC have been caterwauling about Carlson and “ZOMG FOX NEWZZZZZ!” all week long. They seem to operate under the notion that complaining about Fox News 24/7 will be a ratings boon for them, despite years of evidence to the contrary.

It worked out quite well for Tucker, though. More from Matt:

Tucker Carlson Tonight brought in 4.1 million total viewers on Tuesday night, which also boosted prime-time numbers.

“The very strong prime time number was anchored by Tucker Carlson, who brought in 4.14 million total viewers as his show sparked controversy on Monday night for his Jan. 6th coverage. Fox prime time doubled MSNBC’s average of 1.49 million total viewers and brought in more than six times the viewers of CNN. CNN’s prime time average came in at 451,000 total viewers,” Mediaite reported.

“Controversy” means “Democrats are mad.” Carlson’s numbers could almost be construed as gaudy for cable news. If this were a recreational softball game, the mercy rule would have been invoked. In the fourth inning.

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Carlson is that he seems to have more fun than other cable hosts, most of whom look as if they could use double doses of Metamucil. While this is a serious task, you just know that he’s having fun watching haters’ heads explode all over the place.

Let’s hope he keeps having a good time.

VIP Highlight

I’m going to start doing two or three of these a week to put the spotlight on some of our VIP content, both for those who have subscribed and those who might be thinking about it.

One of the things that my friends Stephen Green, Kevin Downey Jr., and I like to do is pepper our political VIP content with non-political palate cleansers. Sometimes they’re goofy, sometimes they’re about movies or books. VodkaPundit and Kevin are both wonderful mixologists who do the occasional cocktail video. My latest Beyond the Briefing video is a fun look at some different styles of stand-up writing, which finds me being uncharacteristically self-effacing. I’ll be myself again soon.

Here’s the thing about VIP — we’re not hitting you up for a lot of money. You can always get a 25% discount by subscribing here at the Briefing. Right now, however, you can subscribe here and use the promo code SAVEAMERICA to get a 40% discount. You can get a VIP Gold membership for around five bucks a month at that rate. We’re not the pharmaceutical industry, so there will be no price gouging. You can support conservative media and have a great time.

I know, I’m a monster.

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The Mailbag of Magnificence contributions can be sent to [email protected].

The Mailbag of Magnificence

It’s good to be back. Let’s start with a hater, because we haven’t had one in a while. This is some dude named Steve:

Conservative Republicans should thank their lucky stars for Mitch McConnell. Every single day. It’s not Mitch who put Republicans in the minority. It’s Trump and the candidates he promoted. Trump lost to a guy who can barely string two sentences together and didn’t leave his basement for the entire campaign. He cost us the Senate by blowing two seats in Georgia. Then he cost us the Senate again last year with his bizarre candidates. So spare us the outrage, and place the blame where it really belongs. Trump.

No.

Eric writes:

Dear Morning Virtuoso,

I must dare to evaluate the Trump statement you cited as him getting his mojo back: “I am your warrior, I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” Trump said. “I will totally obliterate the deep state.”

He may have evoked a cheer of enthusiasm from you and me, but we need to ask some questions about that statement:

Is it credible?
Is it electable?
Is it honest?
No, no, and no.

Trust me, Eric, I’m a skeptic. If you go back and look where I posted the link that day, I prefaced it with “I want to believe him.” I do believe that he sincerely wants to fight for the people who support him. And perhaps the chip on his shoulder from 2020 might give him some extra fire and clarity. See also: I wish he’d stop talking about 2020. We all know where we’re at on that.

David issued this correction:

In your March 3 Morning Briefing, you stated, “And the reason that her kids’ Catholic school doesn’t do meatless Fridays during Lent is that the Lenten fasting and abstinence rules don’t apply to anyone under 18.”
From the USCCB website:
“Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. In addition, Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence. For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards.”

Yeah, I got that one wrong. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Nuns made us abstain regardless of age when I was a kid. And I’m older than 59 and still fast and abstain. Honestly, what the Church calls fasting now isn’t fasting at all. It’s simply eating a little less for a day.

Most people could use that.

This is from Rich:

Stephen,

I find myself looking for your posts here on pjmedia every morning. Seems my day isn’t complete without a dose of your thoughts just as I need those second mugs of strong black coffee. Are you by chance adding something addictive to the mix?

Whatever. Keep up the good work. Looking to tomorrow and your next column.

Thanks, Rich. It’s a spell that’s delivered via the printed word, which I learned from Marianne Williamson. High-level sorcery stuff.

Lori writes:

Hi! Love your columns. I’m convinced that you use some kind of mad libs template to come up with your second sentence every day. They’re great though, keep them coming.

Thank you! My brain spends the day going to places that I can’t predict. It’s a synaptic Mad Libs template.

And occasionally a Tijuana donkey show.

We will finish with this from Dan:

Re: “Cresta truly believed that her intimate knowledge of Fabio commercials would one day be of use in the right kind of hostage negotiation.”

A mind capable of conceiving the above thought is wasted on politics. 😉

I appreciate that, Dan. I’ll be honest: My mind wasn’t a good fit for the priesthood either. I’m slowly getting back on stage to talk about failed relationships and things that would frighten a therapist, which is the highest and best use of this mind.

I thank you all for stepping up after last week’s drought. This was fun!

Everything Isn’t Awful

#TGIF Dance

Happy bird.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/3GN2s1wEhC

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) March 9, 2023

Bee Me

Biden Gives ‘Black American Of Courage’ Award To Robert Downey Jr. For Role In Tropic Thunder https://t.co/a8rByvGf7j

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 9, 2023