The Georgia Republican who called the January 6th Capitol riot a “normal tourist visit” was in the hot seat on Tuesday night, as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) pressed him on his controversial remarks (watch above).

“Do you stand by your statement that they were tourists?” Raskin asked Rep. Andrew Clyde.

Clyde refused to walk back his fact-challenged assertion, instead insisting that Raskin’s questions were not appropriate for the setting: a Rules Committee meeting.“It’s absolutely irrelevant to this amendment right here,” Clyde said.

But the January 6th riot was on Raskin’s mind. Earlier in the day, he had participated in a special House committee investigating the attack. Several police officers described facing extreme violence and racial taunting. Raskin asked Officer Daniel Hodges what he thought of Clyde’s “tourists” comment. Hodges rejected that characterization, instead referring to the rioters as “terrorists.”

“If that’s what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don’t like American tourists,” Hodges added.

Later on Tuesday, at the Rules Committee meeting, Raskin wanted to know if Clyde heard the officers’ testimony. When Clyde obfuscated, Raskin said, “He refuses to say whether or not he heard the Capitol officers who risked their lives and have experienced traumatic medical injuries. That’s his prerogative.”

Clyde insisted that his remarks were being taken out of context. So Raskin read the whole quote verbatim:

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. 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.

“Those are your words,” Raskin said.

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

He later claimed that his “tourist” remark wasn’t intended to describe those who breached the Capitol.

Clyde’s refusal to condemn the rioters is part and parcel of a Republican party that consistently declines to accept any responsibility for how their Stop the Steal rhetoric influenced the January 6th violence.

Two top GOP leaders, Reps. Kevin McCarthy of California and Elise Stefanik of New York, had the temerity to point the finger at Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday, claiming she refused to act on intelligence and summon extra security in advance of the attack.

In a fact-check, The Washington Post simply said the claims against Pelosi “have never been backed by proof.”