The City of Savannah recently approved a weapons purchase contract with 9th District Congressman Andrew Clyde (R-Jackson County) and it has stirred up controversy in the coastal Georgia city. At the center of it is Clyde’s assertion in the days following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the nations’ capitol was like a “normal tourist visit.”
The Savannah Morning News reports that during its May 14 meeting, the Savannah City Council approved the purchase with Clyde Armory, an Athens firm owned by the congressman. The contract, the paper reported, including guns, gun-mounted red-dot sights and related accessories for the Savannah Police Department (SPD), totals about $148,000.
During a May 2021 House Oversight Committee hearing, Clyde said, “Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures.”
“You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the sixth, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit,” he continued.
City officials, the Savannah Morning News reports, defended the decision as a matter of policy and operational need.
“The City does not and cannot base its procurement decisions on every statement, political opinion, or personal position held by a vendor, company owner, officer, shareholder, or employee,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said in an emailed statement to the newspaper. Johnson argued that the decision was based on necessity and established procurement policies rather than his personal opinions.
“While I may personally disagree with the political positions of a company owner, my responsibility as Mayor is to ensure that the operational needs of the City are met in a lawful, fair, and fiscally responsible manner,” Johnson said. “In this case, the needs of the City outweighed my personal views.”
For his part, Clyde has never backed down from his statement.
“I stand by that exact statement as I said it,” he said during a House Rules Committee hearing six months after the incident.