On Jan. 6, thousands of Donald Trump s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The riot resulted in five deaths. More than 100 officers were injured. Hundreds of arrests were made. But you might never know that listening to Republican lawmakers.

During a House oversight committee hearing on Wednesday discussing what went wrong in police preparation for the Jan. 6 riot, and what the Trump administration did or did not do to quell the violence, Republican lawmakers tried to paint themselves as victims.

Let me clear: There was no insurrection, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) falsely claimed during Wednesdays hearing. And to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bold-faced lie.

Clyde went on to defend those who stormed the Capitol building, saying video of the days violence looked to him like a normal tourist visit.

It wasnt a tourist visit. Egged on by then-President Trump to fight like hell, hundreds of his supporters stormed the Capitol, many with the intent to commit acts of violence against lawmakers who refused to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) falsely claimed that Trump supporters were the real victims that day, citing the death of Trump supporter Ashley Babbitt , who was killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer as she tried to enter the House chamber by climbing through a broken glass door.

It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others, Hice said.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), a white nationalist sympathizer whose own family disavowed him for helping to incite the riot, attempted to paint Babbitt as a veteran wrapped in an American flag. He also described the hundreds of insurrectionists arrested and charged by the FBI as peaceful patriots who are being harassed.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), questioned whether the rioters were in fact Trump supporters. It echoes an easily debunked conspiracy theory that posits those who stormed the Capitol that day were actually anti-fascists attempting to make Trump supporters look bad.

Wednesdays hearing signaled another dangerous shift for GOP lawmakers, who continue to deny the results of the 2020 election and now appear to be denying the reality of the insurrection. And Republican lawmakers unwilling to accept the Big Lie that former President Donald Trump continues to harp on will find themselves excommunicated from the party.

Take Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who was ousted Wednesday from her own partys leadership for doing the bare minimum in her refusal to parrot the Republican lie that the election was stolen.