After dinner on Tuesday night, many Americans were probably watching the Olympics. Up on Capitol Hill, the House Rules Committee was plodding through an otherwise unremarkable hearing on three government funding bills for next year.
One of those at the witness table was U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, making the case for an amendment to stop new federal regulations on firearms.
Suddenly, what had been a boilerplate hearing turned into a broader political fight over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as the Georgia Republican finds himself still targeted by Democrats.
Clyde has already been verbally barbequed by Democrats — and across social media — for likening the behavior of some Jan. 6 rioters in the Capitol to a ‘normal tourist visit.’
Clyde’s words were tossed around in the first hearing held this week by a special panel investigating the attack, as Democrats have grown ever more angry with the efforts of Republicans like Clyde to downplay the violence of that day, and downplay any responsibility for Donald Trump.
As U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., zeroed in on Clyde, the anger quickly boiled over.
“Did you watch the testimony of the Capitol officers?” Raskin asked the Georgia Republican.
“It’s absolutely irrelevant,” said an aggravated Clyde, refusing to publicly say if he had seen the Jan. 6 committee testimony.
“They weren’t tourists, they were terrorists,” Raskin said to Clyde repeatedly, as the temperature quickly soared in the small Rules Committee room on the third floor of the Capitol.
The ‘tourist’ remark by Clyde — which he claims has been taken out of context — has developed a life of its own, and does not seem to be going away.
“I stand by that statement,” Clyde said, as the discussion then veered into Clyde’s opposition to a bill awarding gold medals to officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6. (Clyde said he supported a different bill.)
The exchange showcased the completely different reaction to the attack on the Capitol, with Republicans denouncing the investigation as a political show, and Democrats emphasizing the severity of the events.
“I felt the ongoing trauma of the officers,” said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, after Tuesday’s hearing. “Those officers successfully stood between a terrorist mob and tyranny.”
Republicans saw only politics, and most importantly, an attack on Donald Trump.
“Just like both impeachments, this 1/6 Select Committee will be a total kangaroo court!” proclaimed U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro.
Hice initially called the Capitol attack ‘our 1776 moment,’ before deleting that social media post on Instagram.
While most Democrats have forgotten about that Hice comment, it’s a different story for Clyde.
“Normal tourists don’t electrocute police officers with tasers,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis. Democrats aren’t going to let Clyde move on anytime soon from Jan. 6.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and the Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
