Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia) has had an eventful week! On Tuesday, he was one of only 21 Republicans who voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to police who defended the Capitol on January 6, possibly because Clyde wanted to stick to his claim that unless you knew otherwise, the mob looked like a "normal tourist visit." Then on Wednesday, Clyde refused to shake the hand of DC police officer Michael Fanone, who was badly beaten and attacked with his own stun gun by Clyde's beloved "tourists," suffering a concussion and a heart attack as a result.

As the Washington Post reports, Fanone and Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn were visiting the Capitol Wednesday in hopes of meeting those 21 GOP congress members, to explain what had happened the day of the insurrection. Sure, most of the Republicans had actually been there, but they appear to have forgotten. Kind of like Andrew Clyde forgot that the normal reaction to a normal tour group is not to barricade the doors of the House chamber. You'd think Roll Call photographer Tom Williams's photos might have jogged Clyde's memory some.

But as Evan said at the time, maybe Clyde just really hates tourists.

When Fanone and Dunn saw Rep. Clyde getting into an elevator, they joined him, and Clyde got all snippy.

"I simply extended my hand and said, 'How are you doing today, Congressman.' I knew immediately he recognized me by the way he reacted. He completely froze. He just stared at me," Fanone said in an interview.

Fanone said Clyde did not motion to shake his hand in return.

"I said, 'I'm sorry, you're not going to shake my hand?' " Fanone said he told Clyde.

He said Clyde answered, "I don't know who you are."

Fanone said he responded: "I'm sorry, sir, my name is Michael Fanone. I'm a D.C. police officer and I fought to defend the Capitol on Jan. 6." Fanone said he described being stunned repeatedly in the back of the neck and beaten unconscious, stripped of his badge and radio.

We thought shaking everybody's hand was an instinctive reaction for politicians. Maybe Clyde will also insist he was just following CDC hygiene guidelines, and would have gladly bumped Fanone's elbow had it been offered.

Instead of responding to Fanone's self-introduction, Clyde instead continued to ignore him, Fanone says:

"He turned away from me, pulled out his cellphone and started thumbing through the apps." Fanone said Clyde turned on the camera app but did not point the phone in his direction. Fanone said he believes Clyde was trying to record audio of the encounter.

"After that, I just simply stood there," Fanone said.

He said Clyde bolted when the doors opened.

You can hardly blame him, now can you? That scary guy tried to shake his hand, and unlike normal visitors to the Capitol, he wasn't even chanting "Hang Mike Pence" or demanding that Nancy Pelosi surrender herself.

As it turns out, Fanone and Dunn didn't see any of the other 20 Republicans who voted against honoring police who protected them on January 6, but they did have a fine run-in with the chief of staff for one. Fanone said that all the staffers they encountered were just fine, except for this one dude. Seems that James Braid, the chief of staff for Rebecca's congressman, Matt Rosendale, was just as much a prick as his boss. Rosendale, you'll recall, issued that dog-whistley statement on how he had to vote against the federal Juneteenth holiday to save innocent white kids from "critical race theory."

So we suppose it shouldn't be a big surprise that Rosendale hires jerks. When Fanone, in civvies, and Dunn, wearing his Capitol Police uniform because he'd just gotten off duty, went to Rosendale's office, Braid got "super confrontational," according to Fanone. Hoping to meet with Rosendale, they'd given their contact information, but Braid demanded their badge numbers, too.

Fanone said the chief of staff "really got aggressive with Harry."

Fanone said he told Braid, "I'm simply here to schedule a meeting with the congressman to discuss my experience on Jan. 6."

Thank goodness, someone with some objectivity, Rosendale spokesperson Harry Fones, explained that no, the two gentlemen hadn't had any sort of confrontation with Braid at all, heavens no!

"Two men came into our office, unannounced, one dressed in plainclothes and one in uniform including a firearm. Our chief politely asked if they were on duty and for their names as well as badge number, since we had individuals that had now entered our office, unannounced with a firearm and dressed as an officer," Fones said.

Now that's a beautiful load of bollocks. They were unannounced! And had a firearm! And one of them might have been impersonating an officer, for all we knew! Thank God we were all so polite and professional about it! Did I mention the firearm?

We checked, but it appears that Rep. Rosendale is not among the Republicans who have tried to walk around metal detectors so they could bring their own guns into the House. Sometimes the irony gods will let you down that way.

[CNN / WaPo]

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