On Thursday night, Tucker Carlson of Fox News hosted Daniel Cameron, the Attorney General of Kentucky, who had been branded a “race-traitor” by other blacks for his handling of the investigation into Breonna Taylor’s death. Cameron fired back, “It is repugnant; it is so disappointing, but it’s par for the course. Any time someone stands for the truth and when that truth is different from a narrative that has been pushed by others, this is how they respond.” He added, “I’m here tonight to say that enough is enough and that black Republicans, folks that believe in the truth, that we’re going to stand up.”
“Brett Hankison, who was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June, faces three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for allegedly firing bullets that entered several nearby apartment units belonging to Taylor’s neighbors. No charges were filed against Sgt. Johnathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, the other two officers in the March 13 drug raid that resulted in Taylor’s death,” Fox News noted.
Carlson played video of various attacks on Cameron from members of the black community, then stated, “Those attacks are so vicious and so cruel and so unfair that we hesitated to air them again, and we didn’t want to play them right before introducing the Attorney General of Kentucky, Daniel Cameron, but he asked us to because he wants to respond.”
Carlson asked, “I have to ask you: what did you think when you saw that?”
Cameron replied, “Well, look, Tucker, it is so unfortunate that because I have a different political philosophy, and because in my role as Attorney General and as the Special Prosecutor in the Breonna Taylor investigation, and because I led with the facts and truth and had that lead to the conclusion, somehow I’ve betrayed my race. It is repugnant; it is so disappointing, but it’s par for the course. Any time someone stands for the truth and when that truth is different from a narrative that has been pushed by others, this is how they respond. And if you look at my social media, you’ll see countless folks who have made similar statements and comments, but I’m here tonight to say that enough is enough and that black Republicans, folks that believe in the truth, that we’re going to stand up.”
“And that’s what I did in presenting all of the information to the grand jury in the Breonna Taylor investigation,” Cameron continued. “That’s what I’m charged to do. That is my responsibility as the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. That’s what the citizens here of all 120 counties deserve. That’s what they elected me to do.”
Carlson stated, “Well, God bless you for your calm and your bravery. I don’t think I could handled it if I were you, but I’m glad that you can. So, since you’re here, and we’ve covered this case, there’s been a lot of competing stories about what actually happened. Clear up for us, if you would, since no one was more intimately involved in this than you. What misinformation is out there about the Breonna Taylor case?”
“Well, the biggest myth that is being promoted right now is the idea that Sergeant Mattingly, one of the office officers who was administering the search warrant in the morning hours at Breonna Taylor’s apartment, was shot by friendly fire, meaning shot by another officer” Cameron replied. “Look, I’ve taken to calling this a conspiracy theory. In order to believe this narrative that’s being promoted by the defense attorney in Louisville, Kentucky, you have to believe, (1) to defy physics and disregard the trajectory analysis, but you have to believe that the officer that was standing outside the apartment shooting into the apartment, that he had a magic bullet, and that that bullet went through the apartment unit and then made a sharp turn left without any obstruction or any impediment to match it up with the entry point of the wound that Sergeant Mattingly suffered.”
“It is a silly notion; it is one of the biggest myths that has been promoted here in the last few weeks,” Cameron continued. “Before 3 weeks ago and before the defense attorney uttered this statement, it was a foregone conclusion that what happened that evening was that King Walker, Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, fired a shot at the officers. The officers responded and returned fire, justified in doing so because they had been fired upon. And the tragedy, and again, I’ve said this from the very beginning, the tragedy here is that Breonna Taylor was in that hallway as well and was hit.”
Carlson agreed, “Yes.”
Cameron added, “But the tragedy doesn’t allow for to not present the facts and the truth, and that’s what we’ve done here.”
Carlson echoed, “Amen. As an outsider, that’s exactly my read on it. It looked like a tragedy. Everyone has said that she died, but it doesn’t seem like it justifies violence in the streets. You said that as well. You said it’s not justice for the mob to commit violence. And you were attacked for saying that. What do you make of the response?”
“Well, again, there were a lot of people inside and outside, a lot of celebrities, a lot of folks that were either misrepresenting the facts because it was to their advantage, or didn’t know all the information,” Cameron noted. “They made conclusions first and then want to cherry-pick the facts to meet those conclusions. I don’t have that luxury as the attorney general here in the commonwealth. My responsibility is to the truth and to the information, and that is ultimately what leads to the conclusion. We presented all the information to the grand jury. Ultimately, we presented to them as well the fact that the officers, Mattingly and Cosgrove, were fired upon and they were justified in returning their fire.”
He concluded, “We obviously have a prosecution into a third officer that was there that night. I can’t get into the specifics because that is an ongoing prosecution, but again, a lot of folks had already made up their mind and weren’t interested in what the truth is, and now are still trying to cherry pick so that they can fashion a narrative that meets their agenda and advances their own interests.”