Friday, June 4, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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On May 12, during a House Oversight Committee hearing on the Jan. 6 riot, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., remarked that he was “one of the members who stayed in the Capitol, and on the House floor, who with other Republican colleagues helped barricade the door until almost 3 p.m. from the mob who tried to enter.”
There are photos to substantiate this comment.
There is nothing remarkable about this statement, but it does recall the horror of that day when live broadcasts showed members of Congress seeking safety under their desks or fleeing the chambers.
It recalls the vice president frantically calling for help as the mob hung nooses outside the chambers and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was ransacked and death threats were directed toward her.
What is remarkable is the later comment from Clyde that the entire event was not a riot but more closely resembled a “normal tourist visit.”
He went on to state that the supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol behaved “in an orderly fashion.”
Thus, five people dying, lawmakers barricading themselves in chambers and offices being trashed is something to be expected during a normal tourist visit conducted in an orderly fashion.
It is a fact of life that we are all born ignorant.
It is a sad fact that too many choose to continue through life in that same state.
Sadder still is that too many of those who remain ignorant end up in Congress.
