GOP lawmaker claims 'there was no insurrection' and Capitol riot looked like a 'normal tourist visit'

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Brendan Morrow
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A Republican lawmaker is being called "ridiculous" for claiming not only was the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol not an insurrection, but footage from that day resembled a "normal tourist visit."

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) claimed at a Wednesday hearing about the riot that when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building to stop the election results from being certified, it was not an insurrection and that it's a "lie" to say it was.

"There was an undisciplined mob," he said. "There were some rioters and some who committed acts of vandalism. But let me be clear: there was no insurrection."

Clyde asserted that television footage from Jan. 6 showed people entering the Capitol and taking videos and pictures "in an orderly fashion" and "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." This was despite the fact that there were five deaths in the Capitol riot and that the footage that emerged included shocking videos of rioters breaking through windows and of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and then-Vice President Mike Pence being rushed to safety.

Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman called out Clyde's remarks on MSNBC, saying, "I've been reporting on Congress for more than a dozen years, and nothing that happened that day was anything remotely close to what it would look like if tourists came to the Capitol. That's just one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard."

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