GOP Rep. Andrew Clyde Compares Capitol Insurrectionists To ‘Tourists’

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia) said during a House Oversight Committee hearing on the Capitol Insurrection that calling the riots an “insurrection” is a “bald-faced lie” and that the rioters in D.C. were similar to “tourists.”

“This hearing is called the Capitol insurrection. Let’s be honest with the American people: it was not an insurrection, and we cannot call it that and be truthful,” Clyde told a House committee hearing on Wednesday.

Clyde then quoted the Cambridge English Dictionary which defines an “insurrection ” as “an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country usually by violence,” which Clyde does not  believe reasonably describe the riots.

“As one of the members who stayed in the Capitol and on the House floor and who, with other Republican colleagues, helped barricade the door until almost 3 p.m. that day from the mob who tried to enter, I can tell you, the House floor was never breached and it was not an insurrection,” said Clyde.

Clyde’s comments come weeks after Capitol Police officer Michael Fanone warned that the violence from the Capitol insurrection may be whitewashed as people get distance from the riots. “I experienced the most brutal, savage hand-to-hand combat of my entire life,” Fanone told CNN in April. “Let alone my policing career, which spans almost two decades. It was nothing that I had ever thought would be a part of my law enforcement career, nor was I prepared to experience. I want people to understand the significance of January 6. I want people to understand that thousands of rioters came to the Capitol hell-bent on violence and destruction and murder.”