(FRI 5/20/22)

Lordy, we hope there are tapes … Accusations that some Congress members may have given Capitol insurrection rioters “tours” of The Hill, including Senate and House office buildings just before the January 6, 2021 attack, first surfaced in the days immediately after the attack. Now the House Select Committee is chasing evidence that may back such rumors. 

House Panel Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) want Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) (pictured above) to talk about a tour he gave the day prior. 

“We write to seek your voluntary cooperation in advancing our investigation,” Thompson and Cheney wrote, according to Roll Call. “Based on our review of evidence in the Select Committee’s possession, we believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021.”

Loudermilk, a fourth-term representative who serves on the Committee on House Administration, and the committee’s ranking Republican, Rodney Davis of Illinois, say they want to see the security footage first.

“A constituent family with young children meeting with their Member of Congress in the House Office Buildings is not a suspicious group or ‘reconnaissance tour.’ The family never entered the Capitol building,” reads a response from Loudermilk and Davis on the former’s House website. … “The 1/6 political circus released the letter to the press before even notifying Mr. Loudermilk, who has still not received a copy.” 

The response goes on to accuse the 1/6 panel of continuing to push a “false narrative.”

Note: Loudermilk obviously will not agree to “voluntary” cooperation. If the committee has a recording of anyone taking a January 5 tour who is also in January 6 footage, they’ll have to release those tapes – to Loudermilk and Davis at least -- first.

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How not to uncover disinformation … The White House did nothing to explain what the Department of Homeland Security’s new Disinformation Governance Board is supposed to be, says NPR in an interview of Nina Jankowicz, who resigned as the board’s chairwoman after three weeks due to a “right-wing backlash.” 

Jankowicz, described as a “well-regarded authority on disinformation,” and author of a 2020 book with the prescient title, How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict, resigned from the board Wednesday after receiving “abuse, harassment and death threats.” The new DHS board has been a target of the left, but mostly of the right, with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) telling Fox News; “This is Orwellian. This is a Ministry of Truth and the person appointed was a Democratic propagandist.” 

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Speaking of Fox News … By now you’ve no doubt heard about former President George W. Bush’s gaffe in a speech at his presidential center in Dallas earlier this week. Bush was criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching “a wholly unjustified invasion of Iraq … Ukraine…” with the correction coming that quickly. Then under his breath he adds, “Iraq too.” Also under his breath “Seventy-five,” for his age.

Not surprising that Bush’s mistake was covered everywhere from center to left, from stand-in host Mehdi Hasan who reacted very sternly on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show to Stephen Colbert, who was far less stern on The Late Show.

What came as a surprise was how we first learned of the gaffe; from a Fox News popup on our smartphone. Fox & Friends’ newsfeed said Bush “made an eye-catching gaffe,” a response we wonder if the network would have made in the years before Trump.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics