Ray Epps, who famously claimed to “orchestrate” the Capitol riot, said that Fox News host Tucker Carlson is “obsessed” with trying to “destroy” his life.
Epps is a retired Marine who was caught on camera urging January 6 protestors to storm the Capitol prior to the riot, but has never been charged by law enforcement for his actions.
A theory that he was an FBI plant who worked up the crowd to instigate the riot emerged after Revolver News released a video displaying Epps’ prominent presence on January 6.
Carlson has since discussed the theory about Epps – who was seen whispering to a protestor right before the initial barricade to the Capitol was breached, but never crossed the barrier himself – at least 20 times on his his Fox News show.
“He’s obsessed with me,” Epps told “60 Minutes” on Sunday night. “He’s going to any means possible to destroy my life and our lives.”
He said Carlson has gone after him as a means “to shift blame on somebody else.”
“If you look at it, Fox News, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz, Gaetz, they’re all tellin’ us before this thing that it was stolen,” he remarked.
“So you tell me, who has more impact on people, them or me?”
Epps explained that he was at the Capitol because he was a Trump supporter who believed the 2020 election was rigged.
“They’re all telling us, before this thing, that it’s stolen,” he noted. “There was a sloppy election, and then to top that off you have talking heads saying there are problems with the voting machines.”
“So I wanted to be there – I wanted to see it with my own eyes.”
But during the rally, he was filmed telling fellow protestors that they needed to “go in to the Capitol.”
“I said some stupid things,” Epps admitted. “My thought process was: we surround the Capitol, we get all the people there. I had some issues with the election.”
He also sent a text to a family member immediately after the riot, claiming that he “orchestrated it.”
“I was boasting to my nephew. I helped get people there. I was directing people to the Capitol that morning,” Epps revealed.
“I know exactly how it sounds. I’ve been scolded by my wife for using that word. I shouldn’t have used that word.”
But Epps believes that despite the compelling circumstances, Carlson is targeting him wrongly.
His lawyers sent the Fox News host a letter urging a public retraction of the “false and defamatory statements” that he was working the riot at the behest of the federal government.
“No matter how many times they push this lie, this conspiracy theory, it’ll never become truth,” Epps said on Sunday.
Over two years later, the FBI finally issued a statement denying the former marine’s involvement with the department.
“Ray Epps has never been an FBI source or an FBI employee,” the agency told “60 Minutes” in a statement.
Over the weekend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claimed that Tucker Carlson and Fox News are responsible for inciting violence and said that Congress needs to “explore” how regulate them.
“We have very real issues with what is permissible on air, and we saw that with January 6th and we saw that in the lead up to January 6th, and how we navigate questions, not just a freedom of speech but also accountability for incitement of violence,” AOC stated.
“This is the role we have to really explore through law as well,” she told former White House press secretary Jen Psaki during a Sunday MSNBC interview.
“I believe that when it comes to broadcast television, like FOX News, these are subject to federal law and regulation in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t,” AOC remarked.
“And when you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence. Very clearly.”