Morning Joe knocks down GOP lawmaker’s denials about Capitol tour: 'Why is he lying?'

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough doesn't believe the excuses offered by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) about a tour of the U.S. Capitol complex he gave to some constituents who turned up the next day at the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The House Select Committee released video evidence of the Jan. 5, 2021, tour showing a man taking photos and recording video of security checkpoints, tunnels and stairways in the Capitol complex a day before the riot, and that same man was also shown making threats against individual Democratic lawmakers.

"I'd slap the camera out of his hand," said the "Morning Joe" host, a former Republican lawmaker. "A member of Congress, and a guy is doing this, I'd say, 'What are you doing? Stop.' Come on, this is obvious -- it had to be obvious to him what was going on."

Loudermilk initially denied giving a tour, and Capitol police issued a statement earlier this week saying an investigation turned up no evidence of suspicious behavior by the group, but Scarborough wasn't persuaded.

RELATED: 'A dead giveaway': Capitol Police slammed by former FBI official for blowing off Loudermilk's MAGA tour

"Whenever I go to Washington, and it's been this way my entire life, the sites I always want to see, of course, I love the Lincoln Memorial," Scarborough said. "You see the majesty of it. You look up, and it is incredible. I always take pictures of that. I have a great picture in Jefferson Memorial. You look up at that, the words on the wall are inspiring, pictures of that. Another thing my mom and dad rushed us to to make sure I got pictures of was, of course, the security checkpoints going into Congress. Like, those are -- as the congressman said, I mean, it's the first time they've been to Washington, they were very excited. They wanted to take a picture of a security checkpoint. The metal detector, everybody puts -- don't they put that on their top three, top four of sites they want to see in Washington, D.C.?"

"Why is he lying?" Scarborough added. "Why does he think we're stupid?"

Watch the video below or at this link.

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