Andrew Clyde, a congressman from Georgia, said during a House committee hearing in May 2001 — four months after thousands of protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn the presidential election — that calling what happened an insurrection was a “bold-faced lie.”
Clyde described the protestors as an “undisciplined mob, there were some rioters and some who committed acts of vandalism” but “no insurrection.”
“You know,” Clyde added, “if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”
Clyde didn’t explain what video he had watched – or what hallucinogens he was taking — that left the impression that what he saw was “a normal tourist visit.”
Clyde made the statement during a hearing to investigate lapses in security that led to the insurrection that resulted in several deaths and injuries to nearly 150 police officers while members of Congress were forced to interrupt the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election to seek safety.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/18/clyde-tourist-capitol-riot-photos/
Many of those inside the Capitol that day, those who believed their lives were in immediate danger, called their loved ones to say their final good-byes.
More than a thousand people have been charged with crimes related to what happened on January 6.
And yet Andrew Clyde stood – or actually sat — before Congress, God, and the American people and called what happened on January 6 “a normal tourist visit.”
It was the most violent “tourist visit” in history.
If Clyde had not been at the Capitol on January 6, what he said would have sounded like the ravings of a complete lunatic who had lost all connection with reality.
Instead, he came off as a raving lunatic who had lost all connection with reality and was also a “bold-faced” liar.
PolitiFact, the fact-checking website of the Poynter Institute, called Clyde’s comment a “pants on fire” lie, its designation for the most egregious of lies.
CNN’s fact check column called Clyde’s claim “absolute nonsense.”
U.S. district judge Royce Lamberth, who sentenced many of those charged in the January 6 insurrection, characterized the words by Clyde and other deniers as “utter nonsense.”
“The attempt by some congressmen to rewrite history and say this was all just tourists walking through the Capitol is just utter nonsense,” Lamberth said.
“It was not an accident that it turned violent,” Lamberth said of the Capitol attack. “It was intended to draw to a halt the very functioning of our government.”
Lamberth then asked about Clyde and others who denied the insurrection: “What planet” are they living on?
Sadly, the answer to that question is Earth.
Clyde was at the Capitol that day and later voted to decertify the election results when the riot ended.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html
In fact, Clyde, a retired Navy commander who owns a series of gun shops north of Atlanta, rushed to the front the floor of Congress to help police barricade the door to keep rioters from breaking down the door.
We know this because it was captured on video.
We also know this because Tom Williams, a photographer with Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress, released an image of the Republican House member barricading a door.
Williams tweeted the photo, adding, “The Rep. Clyde news reminded me of this.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/18/clyde-tourist-capitol-riot-photos/
Others on Twitter pointed out the contradiction between Clyde’s comments and what the video and photographic evidence showed.
The anti-Trump super PAC, the Lincoln Project, asked Clyde why he would be barricading the doors to tourists.
@Rep_Clyde thinks the attacks of Jan 6. were no different than a group of tourists visiting the Capitol.
Can you spot the difference? pic.twitter.com/3m5cKKdgJC
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 13, 2021
“Is that you in the picture? Do you remember?
Congressman Ted Lieu of California tweeted: “This was not, as you now say, a ‘normal tourist visit.’ 140 police officers were injured, some severely. You should apologize to law enforcement.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/18/clyde-tourist-capitol-riot-photos/
When Clyde was asked was to comment about the criticism, he told reporters that the media “didn’t take what I said in context at all.”
Reporter: “Do you regret saying that? Five people died, including police officers, and you’re here today honoring police officers.” pic.twitter.com/ylW78TN6Hb
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 13, 2021
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/18/clyde-tourist-capitol-riot-photos/
Clyde, caught between the truth of what happened on January 6th and his lie, stood by the lie and kept repeating it.
In late July, Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland confronted Clyde during a committee meeting about his characterization of events on January 6, a few hours after Raskin had participated in a hearing with four police officers who defended the Capitol.
Here is how the Washington Post reported the exchange between Raskin and Clyde.
“Do you stand by your statement that they were tourists?” Raskin asked.
Clyde claimed that Raskin had taken his words from a May congressional hearing out of context.
Raskin then read Clyde’s own words: “Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos and pictures. You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”
“Those are your words,” Raskin said.
“And I stand by that exact statement as I said it,” Clyde answered..
Clyde then said he didn’t say those who breached the Capitol were “tourists.”
“That is not my statement!” Clyde answered in a clearly agitated tone.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/18/clyde-tourist-capitol-riot-photos/
During a committing meeting earlier in the day, members of Congress praised police officers for putting their lives on the line in defense of the rioting tourists.
Michael Fanone, a Washington D.C. police officer who was brutally attacked on January 6 and had to retire from law enforcement because of injuries, approached Clyde before the meeting.
Fanone said he extended his hand, but Clyde refused to shake it. Fanone introduced himself as a Washington, D.C. Metropolitan officers who suffered a traumatic brain injury, a heart attack, and other injuries in his defense of the Capitol.
“At that point the congressman turned and walked away,” Fanone said.
Fanone added, Clyde “ran as quickly as he could, like a coward.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/16/politics/michael-fanone-us-capitol-insurrection-cnntv/index.html
Daniel Hodges, another Washington D.C. police officer who was brutally assaulted outside the Capitol, was asked about Clyde’s description of the violent protesters with tourists.
“If that’s what American tourists are like,” Hodges joked, “I can see why foreign countries don’t like American tourists.”
Clyde was one of 21 Republicans who refused to award a Congressional gold medal to the officers who defended the Capitol.
The final vote was 406-21.
Most of those voting “no,” including Clyde, were members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/15/politics/congressional-gold-medal-house-vote/index.html
