Wednesday’s announcement at a Senate hearing that the Justice Department is creating a new unit specifically dedicated to domestic terrorism is yet another indication that the Biden administration is proceeding wisely in its announced campaign to reel in far-right extremist violence after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Problems remain with the definitional language around the subjects of this investigative/prosecutorial work, but in the broader picture, it demonstrates that Biden’s Department of Justice is focused on the right strategy—namely, establishing right-wing extremist violence (which grew significantly worse under the Trump administration) as a major priority for federal law enforcement.

Which means, of course, that this step will induce howls of outrage from Tucker Carlson and his band of denialists. Indeed, one of Carlson’s most obsequious minions—Sen. Ted “Reek” Cruz, fresh from having what remains of his spine surgically removed by Carlson on national television—led a Republican attack on the Department of Justice officials who announced the new unit during the same hearing, while parroting Carlson’s absurd “false flag” conspiracy theory for the congressional record. Carlson himself followed up on Fox News with a typically gaslighting rant promoting Cruz’s appearance.

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Cruz’s rhetorical attack in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “The Domestic Terrorism Threat One Year After January 6” followed the announcement by Matthew Olsen, head of Department of Justice’s National Security Division, at the session’s outset of the formation of the new unit.

Noting that the number of FBI investigations of suspected “domestic violent extremists” had more than doubled since 2020, Olsen told the committee that the new unit would “augment our existing approach.”

“This group of dedicated attorneys will focus on the domestic terrorism threat, helping to ensure that these cases are handled properly and effectively coordinated across the Department of Justice and across the country,” Olsen said.

Cruz was having none of that. He barraged Olsen with a series of technical questions about the numbers of people arrested for their Jan. 6 activities and how many were for violent offenses, comparing them to prosecutions for “BLM and antifa” violence in the summer of 2020—none of which Olsen was able to answer.  

“Your answer to every damn question is ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,’” Cruz ranted.

He reserved his more serious vitriol for Jill Sanborn, head of the FBI’s national security branch, after she similarly failed to answer his questions—particularly regarding Carlson’s “false flag” theory. Cruz even brought out screenshots taken from Darren Beattie’s coverage for Revolver News (Carlson’s primary source for his conspiracy theory) showing an Arizona man associated with the Oath Keepers named Ray Epps and his actions that day at the Capitol.

But as Politifact explains, Beattie doesn’t even confirm that Epps is an FBI informant, but rather speculates broadly that he is. His actions on Jan. 6, videos show, are wholly consistent with those of the outspoken Trump supporter he has been for years (notably as a spokesman for the Arizona Oath Keepers). And as with all of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who had informant relationships with the FBI, if Epps was also himself an informant, the information he was providing was intelligence on their “leftist” opponents, not on their own organization.

Nonetheless, after ranting about Epps at length and insisting he was an FBI informant, Cruz demanded to know whether FBI agents or informants were in the crowd that day, whether they had participated in any criminal activity, or whether they had encouraged “violent criminal conduct” on Jan. 6. Sanborn replied that she was unable to even discuss those matters.

“Ms. Sanborn, a lot of Americans are concerned that the federal government deliberately encouraged illegal violent conduct on Jan. 6,” Cruz said, demanding to know if that was true.

“Not to my knowledge, sir,” she answered.

In fact, Cruz was repeating almost word for word the narrative spun by Carlson in his conspiracist gaslighting campaign, which Cruz eagerly and abjectly embraced on Carlson’s Jan. 6 Fox News show after Carlson eviscerated the senator for describing the insurrection as “terrorism,” which Carlson called “a lie.”

As Media Matters’ Eric Kleefeld observed regarding that segment, Cruz not only bought into Carlson’s conspiracist nonsense, he made it clear that he intended to champion it henceforth. The two also discussed Epps at length:

CRUZ: So, I think that is a very good question. I don’t know who Ray Epps is. I’ve seen that video multiple times.

CARLSON: Right.

CRUZ: It is disturbing. He is clearly urging the crowd to violate the law. When you see the crowd start chanting, “Fed, Fed, Fed.” For him to appear on the FBI’s most wanted list and come off, it certainly suggests he was working for the FBI. That’s not conclusive, but that’s the obvious implication.

Cruz concluded the segment by assuring Carlson that he would promote the narrative: “They want to paint us as Nazis! Yes, that is what they are trying to do. And I just—look, I’m the one leading the fight in the Senate against this garbage. And it’s what I have been doing and what I’ll continue doing.”

Wednesday afternoon, the Jan. 6 committee’s Twitter posted a response to the theories about Epps:

Nonetheless, Carlson went on his Fox show Wednesday night and claimed that Sanborn’s refusal to answer, Cruz’s questions were evidence that, in fact, “DOJ had some role in the events of Jan. 6,” and then speculated baselessly about the Jan. 6 committee’s tweet:

Carlson went on to claim that even though “Epps is a longtime right-wing activist” who “urged protesters to riot,” Democrats on the committee have become “protective” of him. “So what’s going on here? Something is, that’s for sure,” he concluded.

This is how Carlson’s gaslighting campaign has proceeded from the start: Toss odd factoids that in most cases are either wildly distorted or patently untrue into a cauldron brimming with visceral denialism along with an endless stream of conspiracist speculation, and voila! A fresh round of Kool-Aid for his millions of viewers to gulp down heartily.

And now he knows he can count on Ted Cruz to help hand out the cups.