History will long remember the calamity at the United States Capitol on January 6, when a mob of pro-Trump extremists, motivated by the former President's election lies, stormed the United States Capitol in a deadly failed insurrection.
While Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers bore the brunt of the rioters' aggression, video revealed during Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate that the rioters—who had called for the execution of officials they saw as disloyal to Trump—came within only feet of the lawmakers they were targeting.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah was one of those lawmakers. During the Senate trial, House impeachment managers played a harrowing video that showed Romney walking down a hall outside the Senate chamber, only for a Capitol Police Officer to warn him of incoming rioters, prompting Romney to turn and run to safety. As a Trump-critical Republican who was the only GOP Senator to find then-President Trump guilty in his first impeachment trial, Romney would've been a primary target of their violence.
So Romney was speaking from personal experience when he recently commented on lies broadcast by Republican Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia.
Clyde absurdly claimed during a committee hearing on the insurrection that calling the insurrection an insurrection was a "bald-faced lie."
He even went so far as to compare the riots to a "normal tourist visit."
Watch below.
This is Rep. Andrew Clyde (Q-GA) saying the January 6 insurrection looked like \u201ca normal tourist visit\u201d inside the Capitol. \n\nJust batsh*t crazy.\n\nHas anyone told him it\u2019s all on video?pic.twitter.com/iUtoDTneD2— Rex Chapman\ud83c\udfc7\ud83c\udffc (@Rex Chapman\ud83c\udfc7\ud83c\udffc) 1620843818
Clyde said:
"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 sixth, you'd actually think it was a normal tourist visit."
In reality, Capitol rioters shattered windows, ransacked offices, smeared excrement across the walls, and hurled racist slurs at officers while beating them. It was anything but a "normal tourist visit."
Romney pushed back against Clyde's absurd claim, saying:
"I experienced the day. It was a violent effort to interfere with the constitutional order and thwart the duly-elected president from taking the office. And as such it was an insurrection."
Even critics of the Republican party agreed with Romney on this.
This isn\u2019t hard to understand https://twitter.com/Grace_Segers/status/1392914293998460930\u00a0\u2026— Lee Ellzey (@Lee Ellzey) 1620957604
Huge if true.\n\nAlso: True.https://twitter.com/Grace_Segers/status/1392914293998460930\u00a0\u2026— Lex Friedman (@Lex Friedman) 1620957053
fire.https://twitter.com/Grace_Segers/status/1392914293998460930\u00a0\u2026— Neal Silvester - Metafiction Director (@Neal Silvester - Metafiction Director) 1620942141
Thanks Romney for speaking the TRUTH!https://twitter.com/Grace_Segers/status/1392914293998460930\u00a0\u2026— Louis Pennywell (@Louis Pennywell) 1620940287
It is quite disturbing that a very level-headed and objectively accurate portrayal of events between November and January is now seen as effectively treason by most GOP partisanshttps://twitter.com/Grace_Segers/status/1392914293998460930\u00a0\u2026— rcon14 (@rcon14) 1620937994
I can\u2019t believe there are people who still do not understand thishttps://twitter.com/Grace_Segers/status/1392914293998460930\u00a0\u2026— Theresa (@Theresa) 1620932060
Meanwhile, Clyde continues to face pushback for his delusional characterization of the day's horrors.
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga, said \u201cif you didn't know the TV footage was from Jan. 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.\u201d Pants on Fire! More than 400 people have been charged in the criminal breach of the U.S. Capitol. https://bit.ly/2R8zMQH\u00a0pic.twitter.com/xcMYkfR5vT— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) 1620945000
A pathetic gaslighting politician and of course he is #RepQublicanhttps://twitter.com/haleytalbotnbc/status/1392832718422093830\u00a0\u2026— \ud83d\udda4Carly Lehwald (@\ud83d\udda4Carly Lehwald) 1620993436
.@Rep_Clyde is a COWARD. Shame on him!!https://twitter.com/haleytalbotnbc/status/1392832718422093830\u00a0\u2026— m\ud83d\uddfd (@m\ud83d\uddfd) 1620938454
Clyde falsely accused the media of taking his comments out of context.
