Police officer responds to GOP claims that Capitol rioters were tourists: 'If that's what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don't like American tourists'
- A police officer cracked a joke when asked about GOP claims that Capitol rioters were "tourists."
- "If that's what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don't like American tourists," Daniel Hodges said.
- Hodges repeatedly referred to the Capitol insurrectionists as "terrorists."
A Metropolitan Police officer on Tuesday cracked a joke when a Democratic lawmaker asked him about Republican claims that the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 were "tourists."
"Some of our colleagues have been calling the violent insurrectionists not terrorists, but tourists," said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, referring to Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde's earlier claim on the matter. "Why do you call the attackers terrorists, and what do you think about our colleagues who think we should call them tourists?"
"Well, if that's what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don't like American tourists," MPD officer Daniel Hodges deadpanned, as lawmakers and the audience broke into laughter.
He continued: "But I can see why someone would take issue with the title of 'terrorist.' It's gained a lot of notoriety in our vocabulary the past few decades. And we like to believe that that couldn't happen here, no domestic terrorism, no homegrown threats."
"But I came prepared," Hodges said, before reading out the definition of domestic terrorism under US law.
Hodges referred to the insurrectionists who overran the Capitol as "terrorists" multiple times on Tuesday, as he and three other witnesses testified before a special committee Congress set up to investigate the January 6 siege.
The MPD officer made headlines after harrowing footage showed him screaming in pain while crushed in a doorway between the pro-Trump mob and law enforcement officers trying to hold the line.
On Tuesday, Hodges told lawmakers that he remembered foaming at the mouth while being crushed and as rioters tried to rip his helmet off.
"I did the only thing I could do, scream for help," he said.