A Republican congressman who denied there was an insurrection and likened Capitol rioters to tourists was photographed barricading the chamber doors against them
- A GOP lawmaker who has said there was no insurrection was seen barricading the House on January 6.
- Rep. Andrew Clyde said last week that the riot resembled a "normal tourist visit."
- But he had been photographed pushing furniture against the chamber's doors.
A photo emerged of a GOP lawmaker who last week downplayed the Capitol siege and compared the rioters to tourists barricading the House doors with furniture on January 6.
Rep. Andrew Clyde said during a House oversight committee hearing on Wednesday that it was a "bald-faced lie" to call the riot an insurrection. He said the riot, in which hundreds of Trump supporters breached the Capitol, resembled a "normal tourist visit."
After Clyde's comments, a photographer shared a photo he had taken of Clyde using furniture to barricade the House against rioters trying to force their way in to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory. Several people died in the riot.
"The Rep. Clyde news reminded me of this," the photographer, Tom Williams, said on Twitter.
In the hearing last week, Clyde addressed his attempts to barricade the House and suggested that because rioters did not breach the chamber it was not an insurrection.
"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," he said.
Clyde described the rioters as an "undisciplined mob" but also said they resembled tourists, Insider's Grace Panetta reported.
"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," he said.
He also falsely claimed that police officers had not confiscated any firearms from people who breached the Capitol.