NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) mocked the House Jan. 6 select committee after a production team associated with Stephen Colbert’s late-night comedy show was arrested on Capitol Hill.
The Georgia Republican, who attracted scrutiny for giving a tour of the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, just one day before the complex became the site of a riot attempting to overturn the 2020 election results, argued the actions of Colbert’s crew were hypocritical.
“They’ve accused me of giving this family that came to my office for a meeting. We took them to lunch, [and] they’re accusing us of that being a reconnaissance tour,” he said Saturday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in Nashville.
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“Adam Schiff, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, illegally brought Stephen Colbert’s comedy team into the Capitol and left them unescorted at night, and they were arrested,” he said. “So while they’re accusing me of giving illegal tours of the Capitol, they are giving illegal tours of the Capitol.”
Loudermilk described the criticism he has received over the Jan. 5 tour, which was the subject of much of the questions from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, as part of a broader “cancel culture,” saying that he is determined to “stand up for truth.”
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said his force did “not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious” regarding Loudermilk’s tour.
“We’re in a war against truth in this nation,” Loudermilk said Saturday. “If they can destroy the truth, they will undermine everything that we stand for in this nation and everything that it’s about. And they do this through hypocrisy.”
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Members of the Colbert-connected group, originally at the Capitol for last Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing, were charged with unlawful entry and released later that night after they were found in the Longworth House Office Building filming a skit for the show. The space was closed to the public at the time.
