McCarthy says he will "slowly roll out" Jan. 6 footage to news agencies

The big picture: McCarthy came under fire from top congressional Democrats for giving Fox News' Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol footage from the Jan. 6 riot.

• A group of news organizations also asked McCarthy for access to the thousands of hours of surveillance footage.
• The California Republican previously defended his move to give Carlson access to the footage, telling the Washington Post: "It almost seems like the press is jealous."

What he's saying: "My goal here is transparency and we will slowly roll out to every individual news agency, they can come see the tapes as well," McCarthy said.

• He defended his decision to give Carlson access to the tapes, saying that he allowed him "to come see [the tapes], just like an exclusive with anybody else."

Go deeper... McCarthy plays with fire