Ross: Cherry-picking the truth after January 6th

During a meeting of the House Rules committee Tuesday, Democrat Jamie Raskin thought he would score some points against Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia.

Rep. Clyde is the person who used the now-famous word “tourist” to describe some of the attackers on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol. It was a comment that was ridiculed during the testimony of four Capitol Hill police officers.

So Jamie Raskin, who’d just witnessed the testimony of the officers, came into the Rules Committee ready to pounce, and quoted Representative Clyde’s words back to him.

“‘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. If you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit,'” Raskin said. “Those are your words.”

“And I stand by that exact statement as I said it,” Clyde responded.

So there’s one act of cherry-picking — Raskin taking the worst-sounding comment to make him look delusional. I went back to the video of Rep. Clyde’s original statement, which was from a hearing on May 12.

Clyde said: “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. that day from the mob who tried to enter, I can tell you the House floor was never breached. It was not an insurrection. To call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bold faced lie. Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and went 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 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”

He was saying you would think it was a “normal tourist visit,” IF ALL YOU SAW WAS THAT PARTICULAR VIDEO CLIP. That’s why he insists his statement is accurate.

OK, but that’s also cherry-picking. As you read, he calls them a “mob,” and describes himself as helping “barricade the door.” It’s like pointing to pictures of people partying last summer at the CHOP on Seattle’s Capitol Hill and saying it looked like the “Summer of Love.”

At least Mayor Durkan walked that remark back after she saw things go crazy, whereas Rep. Clyde knows exactly how crazy it went and is still all-in. But that’s the problem with trying get to the truth: It tends to be much too complicated for a headline.

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