Like a child trying to concoct a good one after skipping a homework assignment, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R–GA) was seen today coming up with some creative reasons on why his "tour" group snapped photos of stairwells and security checkpoints inside the Capitol on January 5th.
"What they were taking a picture of was … the little trains that, that take congressmen," he stammered. (See first video below.)
But why, specifically, did they take pictures of a stairwell, asked a reporter.
"If you go to that stairwell, there's a golden eagle sconce that's on the wall," he said, emphasizing the sconce's heft with his hands. "That's what they were taking a picture of."
But Rep. Brendan Boyle (D–PA) has his doubts, tweeting, "This is the stairwell I take to my office. In my 8 yrs here, I have never seen a tourist taking a picture of it." (See second tweet below.)
And Daniel Goldman, former federal prosecutor who served as lead counsel for House Democrats during Trump's first impeachment inquiry, tweeted, "I know exactly where this insurrectionist was taking photos — the staircase he photographed was the one I walked up to the impeachment hearings — and there is nothing of interest to a "normal tourist" in those areas." (See bottom tweet.)
When the reporter then asks why he never responded to a letter the January 6th Committee sent, I was waiting for him to say the dog ate it. Or the wind blew it away. Or Bobo shot it into smithereens. But no, he was a little more subtle than that: "They sent it to you guys."