Commentary
Exclusive: Chairman Thompson Says Classified Tapes House Speaker Turned Over to Fox News Have ‘Serious National Security Implications’
Mississippi Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson revealed that some of the 41,000 hours of video footage from the January 6, 2021, insurrection that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) turned over to Fox News included classified material that could threaten national security.

By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire
Mississippi Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson revealed that some of the 41,000 hours of video footage from the January 6, 2021, insurrection that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) turned over to Fox News included classified material that could threaten national security.
In an exclusive 65-minute interview with Let It Be Known, a live daily news show put on by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, Thompson, the head of the January 6 Commission, said he wanted to see what document McCarthy signed with Fox News to transfer the footage.
“There are serious national security implications, a lot of what we saw and did not share with the public as a committee,” Thompson said in a no-holds-barred discussion with Black Press reporters on the program.
“There are safeguards in place, and some of this material is privileged,” he continued.
“You can’t just open the store and let someone come in and clean it out. We want to see what document was executed for that transfer of information. I chaired the [January 6] committee, and I can tell you that there is clearly information in there that we choose not to put in the public arena because of its sensitivity.”
The bold and unusual move by the House speaker of handing over such information reportedly comes after McCarthy faced intense pressure from his right flank to relitigate the work of the House select committee.
While it took an unprecedented 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to win the speakership, one of the reasons Republicans relented was because he vowed to hold hearings on the Capitol riot.
Thompson noted that the cause for alarm rose further when McCarthy gave the classified information to Carlson, the most outspoken Fox host, to promote the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
“You turn the tapes over to a guy who was the cheerleader of lies being told, and even when he knew what he was saying was wrong, he kept saying it,” Thompson railed.
“I don’t know what it means from a journalistic standpoint, we can have differences of opinion, but when facts say something different and are irrefutable, and you try to promote alternate situations, that’s not journalism,” he continued.
“You turn this kind of information to these people who have been proven in a court of law not to tell the truth about a subject they had already acknowledged in court. Fox News has turned this information over to the courts in a lawsuit, and now that same Fox News has access to information about January 6. The speaker should have said, ‘I can’t let you have this.’ But he did.”
While Thompson doesn’t expect McCarthy to pay the price for his action, he stated his belief that he, a Democrat and African American, most certainly would have had it been him who turned over classified information.’
“I, and every other member of Congress, take an oath that you are not supposed to release that kind of information,” Thompson declared.
“If you do, you have violated the oath of office and broken the law.”
Thompson, who led the investigation into the January 6 insurrection, called it challenging to work with Republicans like McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and others.
“I think Speaker McCarthy, because of his challenge to become speaker, made so many off-the-record commitments to become the speaker that he can’t say no to certain people,” Thompson asserted.
“He can’t say no to Marjorie Taylor Greene or some of those other folks. So, it took him too long to become the speaker. Every time a vote was taken, they [negotiated, and ultimately McCarthy got the number he needed. Still, it’s clear that he had to give up all authority and power inherent in a traditional speakership to get [the job].
“So, I’m not surprised he gave this information to Fox News. They’ve been in his corner promoting an alternate reality, which is part of the payback to the Fox Network.”
Thompson said politics are far different today than in previous times.
While many of his colleagues believe in the rule of law and that America is a nation of laws, Thompson said some in Congress differ substantially.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that there should be a national divorce, but that’s the Civil War. That’s the 2.0 version of divide and conquer or us versus them,” Thompson insisted.
“What we try to do is based on facts and to promote the truth,” he continued.
“A lot of our colleagues could give a tinker’s damn about the truth. I’ll celebrate 30 years in this institution in a couple of months, and I’ve never seen it this partisan, and I’ve never seen the lack of respect I see now for the institution.”
Thompson also revealed for the first time how challenging, and life-threatening serving on the January 6 Commission was.
“Every member ended up with a security detail,” Thompson offered.
“The moment they landed in Washington, the Capitol police would meet them at the airport and be with them until they got back on the plane.
“When you went home, another detail would meet you and be at the house until you returned to Washington. Based on the threat level, they assessed and looked at social media postings. We had folks crazy enough to call the office. So, they gave everyone a detail. It was also what was being said. People were talking about family members. You can pick on Bennie Thompson but leave my wife, daughter, and grandchildren alone. It was a challenge.
“We had witnesses we wanted to talk to, but they were afraid. So, for a couple who testified, we moved them out of their apartments before they testified and put them in undisclosed locations.
“We were concerned. After they testified, they left town the same day. It was something that the annals of history, over time, will tell you that we went through.
“But we told everyone that they were welcome to be a witness in public or in private, but under oath. If you lie to us, we will charge you with perjury.”
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 29 – April 4, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 29 – April 4, 2023

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Commentary
Re-Fueling Jet Magazine Where Everyone Can Be ‘Beauty of the Week’
Remember “Beauty of the Week,” Jet magazine’s famous page 43, which featured Black women college students, actors, nurses, and everyday girls in swimsuits? Now, anyone can be a beauty of the week or even grace the cover as the iconic publication re-sets digitally and where readers and fans can go to myjetstory.com and upload their photos and create a personalized Jet cover.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
Remember “Beauty of the Week,” Jet magazine’s famous page 43, which featured Black women college students, actors, nurses, and everyday girls in swimsuits?
Now, anyone can be a beauty of the week or even grace the cover as the iconic publication re-sets digitally and where readers and fans can go to myjetstory.com and upload their photos and create a personalized Jet cover.
“Everybody has a Jet story,” Daylon Goff, the president of Jet, said during a 30-minute interview on the National Newspaper Publishers Association daily show, Let It Be Known.
“I’m always rocking Jet merchandise, and when someone finds out what I do for a living, they immediately give me their Jet story. Unprompted.”
For Goff, that’s all the fuel he needed to help in what he calls the re-set of Jet.
“It’s super exciting for me to be able to take this on,” Goff insisted.
“When you hear ‘Beauty of the Week,’ you don’t have to even say Jet beauty of the week. It’s synonymous. I get those conversations from both men and women at least three times a week.”
Founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson, Jet proved a mainstay in primarily Black households across America.
Like Ebony, founded six years earlier, Jet chronicled Black life in America and provided a lens into the African American community that mainstream media either ignored or misrepresented.
Goff recalled the disturbing but necessary images Jet published in 1955 of Emmett Till’s body after he was lynched and tortured.
“We had to be bold because you have that full ownership and understanding of the significance of that story,” Goff related.
“Jet was to the Emmett Till story what Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook live was to George Floyd. It started a movement. It wasn’t like little Black boys and men weren’t getting killed in Mississippi in 1955, but when you saw it on those pages, you felt you had to do something.
“The same way when you saw on social media George Floyd’s murder, you had to do something about it because it wasn’t as if before that moment, Black men weren’t getting killed by the police.”
While Jet told real stories about real people, most readers began with page 43.
With the re-set, Goff said one shouldn’t expect an immediate return of the Beauty of the Week.
“It was relatable and owned by our community,” Goff explained.
“The Beauty of the Week was a college student at Fayetteville, a nurse, secretary, or actress. Relatable people that we all thought were attainable. But how can we be relevant to our audience in a world that’s different and the way we consume information and get information?”
For instance, Goff wondered what would happen if Rihanna were chosen as the first beauty.
“Then Lizzo fans could say, what about her? And if we choose Lizzo, RuPaul could say, what about me?” Goff stated.
“People would have every right to say that Jet is saying ‘I’m not beautiful.’”
Indeed, Jet was social media before Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Going viral in pre-social media days meant being on the cover of Jet.
Goff, whose background is brand marketing, understands that the Jet re-set is a challenging assignment.
But he’s thrilled to take it on.
“I call this being re-fueled by Jet. We can be relevant to our audience in a world that’s different, and the way we consume information and get information is different,” he stated.
“I also have to be relevant to an audience in a way that Ebony isn’t cannibalized. And we can do that. If we compare Ebony and Jet to iconic television characters, Ebony is Claire Huxtable, and Jet is Martin [Lawrence]. They both speak to the Black experience but in a different way.”
The key, Goff said, is figuring out how to keep Jet around for the next 70 or so years.
Basketball legend Charles Barkley still refers to Jet as the Black ‘bible,” Goff said, but the challenge is to ensure that a younger generation connects with the publication.
“Talking to 20 and 25-year-olds, I’m sometimes surprised that they are familiar with Jet,” Goff said.
“People never threw away Jet. They put them in boxes, and I’m sure there’s a ton in someone’s attic. You just had to hold on to them. There’s a spark from the younger generation; for me, it’s about igniting that spark.
“The great part about the next generation is that they also grew up with this computer in their pocket and can find and search for knowledge. So, we need to ensure that our iconic brands remain for years.”
Art
Emil Guillermo: The Historical Indictment Party in New York City and the 1st Presidential Mugshot
I’m still in Manhattan, performing in Oakland resident Ishmael Reed’s off-Broadway play now at Theater for the New City. I’m not a New York tourist, I’m more like a working resident. Acting like a New Yorker. That’s not to say I’m brash or rude, but when it comes to whether or not there’s protests over the possibility of an impending Trump indictment, most New Yorkers seem more concerned with when the cold weather is going away, not when Trump is going away, or with any repeat of Jan. 6.

I’m still in Manhattan, performing in Oakland resident Ishmael Reed’s off-Broadway play now at Theater for the New City.
I’m not a New York tourist, I’m more like a working resident. Acting like a New Yorker.
That’s not to say I’m brash or rude, but when it comes to whether or not there’s protests over the possibility of an impending Trump indictment, most New Yorkers seem more concerned with when the cold weather is going away, not when Trump is going away, or with any repeat of Jan. 6.
And if anyone wants to “take back the government” in the name of Donald Trump, I’d like to see them take on the NYPD.
I’m actually still quite immersed as an actor in Ishmael Reed’s “The Conductor.” In Reed’s play, a fictional Indian despot’s actions impact Indian Americans who face a wave of xenophobia and are forced to flee to Canada on an “underground railroad.”
Hence, the need for a “conductor.”
Turns out everyone who is feeling some heat may need to flee the U.S.
“The Conductor” runs through March 26. Get tickets so see in person or live-streamed here:
https://theaterforthenewcity.net/shows/the-conductor-2023/
Reed wasn’t so prescient to include the possibility of a Trump indictment (or four) in a storyline but I now wonder if the twice-impeached former president of the United States will soon need a “conductor.”
To get to Canada? After all that he’s said about Justin Trudeau?
I was thinking out loud on this issue with Asian American Studies Professor Daniel Phil Gonzales on www.amok.com (Episode 489/481).
We go straight to wondering if Trump will get convicted for any of the cases that are brewing. From minor to major, they include the hush money/Stormy Daniels/falsifying of documents case in New York; the voter fraud and possible racketeering case in Georgia; the Mar-a-Lago stolen presidential documents case; and possible federal charges connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
If Trump is ensnared in any or all of them, would he even have the courage of a Martha Stewart to don a matching orange jumpsuit? Or does he just flat out leave the country?
Gonzales says he leaves. But to where?
I think Trump has his Putin parachute ready under his left arm. And under his right arm, there’s his North Korean parachute fashioned together with love letters from Kim Jong Un.
Ah, a former president in exile because he dared to be president again?
That’s the narrative the Republicans are drumming up, as if all this is simply a political “witch hunt.” We won’t know till we see any official charges.
Republicans can opine about the legal process, but it’s another thing to intimidate the New York DA with threats of congressional investigations.
What’s worse is that law-and-order Republicans can’t see their blind spot when it comes to the respect for the rule of law when their own fearful leader is the possible perp.
Trump’s reaction was simply to go off half-cocked, not even knowing what the charges are. But most appalling is his “go to”—the call for violence.
“Protest, protest, protest,” Trump wrote in his social media posts over the weekend, prompting calls for “civil war” among his base. Trump respects the law so much, his best response to a possible indictment in New York is to throw a dictator’s tantrum.
This is a man who doesn’t understand American democracy and didn’t deserve to be president even once.
And it’s not just the GOP leaders under Trump’s spell, but even some in our communities still supporting the twice-impeached former pres.
When it comes to Asian Americans running for president, Nikki Haley is still mum. But there’s one presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, the anti-woke Indian American rushing to Trump’s defense.
“This will mark a dark moment in American history and will undermine public trust in our electoral system itself,” Ramaswamy said, undermining a standing criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
We should all be rooting for Bragg, a Harvard College and Harvard Law graduate who grew up in Harlem and knows what it’s like to be stopped by police for no good reason other than one’s race. Bragg has said his prosecutors will not be intimidated.
If Bragg’s indictment comes down this week or next, Trump will be treated both like a former president, and a common criminal. No man is above some kind of perp walk, right?
That’s never happened before in history. Will it make him more popular? That’s Chris Rock’s spin. But no democracy-loving American I know would ever vote for an indicted outlaw for president.
And once Bragg lights the wick, it should clear the way for Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis, another African American with a keen sense of justice, to explode on the scene.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has decried all the politics and said he just wants to see equal justice for all. What a hoot.
We all do, especially those of us in the BIPOC community, where equal justice is too often hard to come by. Ask Tyre Nichols’ family in Memphis.
Me? I can’t wait to see the first presidential mug shot.
NOTE: I will talk about this column and other matters on “Emil Amok’s Takeout,” my micro-talk show. Occasionally Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on Facebook; my YouTube channel; and Twitter. Catch the recordings on www.amok.com.
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