CNN's Chris Wallace accuses the January 6 committee of “overselling” and working too closely with the media
Published
Citation From the June 9, 2022, edition of CNN's Attack on Democracy
ANDERSON COOPER (CNN ANCHOR): Chris Wallace, they view this as opening arguments, as essentially building their case. How important is it for them do you think in this first night to kind of build an overarching picture of the case that they're going to make -- the totality of the case?
CHRIS WALLACE (CNN ANCHOR): I think that's important. I also think it's important that they do something to say to the viewing public, “Wow, this is a big deal and you're learning something that you didn't know before." Look, I agree with everything that has been said so far. January 6 was a dark day in our democracy, anything that could be done -- I care less about what happened. I feel like I know what happened on January 6, but anything that can prevent it from happening again is worthwhile. But having said that, I'm kind of skeptical about what we're going to see tonight and over the next couple of weeks.
COOPER: Because so much has been out there already?
WALLACE: Well, a couple of reasons: first of all I think the committee has fallen prey to terrible hype, terrible overselling. You've got Jamie Raskin, one of the members of the committee saying this is going to blow the roof off the house. You've got Adam Kinzinger saying it's going to change history.
Secondly, they have gotten the former president of ABC news Jim Goldston to produce this made-for-TV event. I think that's a bad look both for the committee and mainstream media to seem that they’re hand-in-glove with each other. I mean, the fact is we live in a country -- it's a year and a half ago that this happened, I think most people feel they know what happened. They either believe it or don't believe it, and we live in a country which 70% of Republicans, according to the polls, do not believe that Joe Biden was elected legitimately. Do I think that something is going to happen tonight that is going to change that dramatically? I'm skeptical.