Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga) downplayed the deadly January 6 Capitol riot during a hearing with former Trump administration officials about the response to the assault.
Rep. Clyde liken the violence that day to a “normal tourist visit” to the Capitol.
He took issue with the media calling what happened on Jan. 6 an “insurrection.” He said “there was an undisciplined mob,” but argued that “to call it an insurrection in my opinion is a bold-faced lie.”
“Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall, showed people in an orderly fashion in between the stanchions and ropes taking pictures. If you didn’t know the footage was from January 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit,” Clyde said.
More than 140 police officers were injured on Jan. 6 and one, Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died from injuries sustained during the attack. Two officers who were on the front lines trying to hold back the MAGA mob committed suicide days after the assault.
Four hundred people have been charged so far with crimes related to the riot.
Rep. Clyde was not the only Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee who sought to downplay the violence on Jan. 6.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Tx) said the descriptions of the day’s attack were “hyperbolic”.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) downplayed Trump’s involvement in the riot, arguing that the rioters were not actually supporters of the former president even though many of them have confirm in court documents that they storm the Capitol because they believe that was what Trump wanted.
Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga) said “it was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others,” referring to the death of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot while trying to break into the House chamber.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) cast Babbitt as “a veteran wrapped in an American flag” who was “executed.”
Democrats meanwhile accuse Republicans of engaging in “revisionist history.” Democratic lawmakers also confronted former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who were members of the Trump administration on Jan. 6.
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) clashed with Miller after he walked back comments he made in March blaming Donald Trump for the attack. Miller said at the time that Trump supporters wouldn’t stormed the Capitol if he hadn’t delivered his speech at the rally before the attack.
Lynch called Miller’s reversal “ridiculous.”
