Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) Helped Insurrectionists Plan Their Attack On The Capitol

Where's Barry?

State Senator and right-wing crackpot Barry Loudermilk ran for a safe (R+24) red seat north of Atlanta, GA-11, in 2014 when the incumbent decided to run for the U.S. Senate. He's best known for breaking a campaign pledge on his first day in Congress. He had campaigned to help defeat John Boehner as Speaker. Instead he stabbed his fellow fascists in the back and voted for Boehner. Aside from that, he's best known for falsely telling his colleagues in a floor speech that Trump's impeachment was just like the crucifixion of Jesus. "When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers... During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this President in this process." Other things he's known for: privatizing Social Security and Medicare, homophobia, trying to eliminate the EPA, the IRA and women's Choice. The Georgia primary is Tuesday. Loudermilk has no opponent.

So... a garden variety MAGA Republican. But that's not the end of the story. Loudermilk was one of the garden variety MAGA Republicans who took domestic terrorists on a tour of the Capitol on January 5. The select committee investigating the deadly insurrection and coup attempt, has evidence and has invited Loudermilk to come by for a little chit chat, not under oath, next week. They referred to his showing the rioters around the Capitol complex as a "reconnaissance tour."

The request for voluntary cooperation from Loudermilk indicates the panel has been quietly focused on one of the unexplained mysteries of 6 January: how certain supporters of Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol appeared to know in advance the layout of the Capitol complex.

Some of the offices and ceremonial spaces in the Capitol-- such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office-- are marked and easy to locate. But Democrats raised concerns after 6 January that some rioters were able to locate hideaway offices and the underground tunnel network.

The concerns led to 34 House Democrats seeking an investigation into the alleged reconnaissance tours that took place on 5 January 2021, which prompted a review of security camera footage by the House administration committee, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Democrats on the House administration committee turned over some of that footage to the US attorney for the District of Columbia, which is prosecuting January 6 seditious conspiracy and obstruction of Congress cases, the sources said.

But the top Republican on that committee said in February that some of his members had reviewed the footage and said in a separate letter that “it does not support these repeated Democrat accusations about so-called ‘reconnaissance’ tours”.

In a twist, Loudermilk filed an ethics complaint last May against Democratic congresswoman Mikie Sherrill and other Democrats who alleged GOP members had given such tours.

“No Republican member of Congress led any kind of ‘reconnaissance’ tours through the Capitol, proven by security footage captured by the US Capitol police,” Loudermilk said as part of his complaint that urged the House ethics committee to investigate Sherrill.

The select committee investigating 6 January events reached a different conclusion, Thompson and Cheney wrote, and identified Loudermilk as among the members who provided tours the day before the Capitol attack-- at a time when congressional Covid-19 rules prohibited such tours.

There were other Republicans who also gave recon tours to Proud Boys and other domestic terrorists, one being Lauren Boebert, the violent and verifiably insane QAnon Congresswoman from Colorado.

And, no, Barry Loudermilk was not auditioning for Iced Earth