Gohmert honored by GOP, shamed by others

Republicans lauded retiring U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert as a “true, true patriot” who spent countless hours on the House floor saying the things that “a lot of the people are not gutsy enough to say.”

“You’ve never backed down from fighting for our democracy; you’ve never backed down because sometimes the truth is hard to hear,” U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, a Friendswood Republican, said during a series of speeches on the House floor Tuesday night in what became known on social media as the “Gohmert hour.”

But earlier Tuesday, the family of U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after injuries he suffered defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, had the opposite message. His brother Ken Sicknick specifically called out Gohmert after refusing to shake hands with GOP leaders during a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring the police departments that defended the Capitol during the riots.

“People like Louie Gohmert, who presented an American flag that was flown over the Capitol to a Jan. 6 rioter and told them they were a patriot — it’s disgusting,” Sicknick said in a CBS News clip that went viral on Twitter.

The split-screen moment was a fitting farewell for the Tyler Republican who has been one of the most polarizing and provocative figures in Congress for 18 years, during which he spent some so much time speaking from the House floor that Democratic leaders limited socalled “special-order speeches” to one a week.

Gohmert said he came to Congress to defend the country and that he “hoped that when I left that I could feel we had perpetuated that liberty for at least another generation.”

But Gohmert was also a spreader of fringe — and often baseless — theories, rising to prominence with warnings of “terror babies” being sent to the country by foreign enemies.

He was one of the most vocal proponents of former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him, and he was one of a handful of Republicans in Congress who asked Trump for a pardon after the Jan. 6 attack, according to testimony shown by the House committee investigating the insurrection.

Gohmert was a staunch defender of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, who he deemed “political prisoners held hostage by their own government.”

“It takes away the heroism my brother showed,” Sicknick said.

Republicans said they were inspired by Gohmert’s conservative political approach, willingness to take on party leaders and fierce defense of religious freedoms and other liberties.

“We used to make our interns watch the Gohmert hour, so they could learn from the great Louie Gohmert,” said U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, an Austin Republican whose district stretches to San Antonio. “I took to heart watching the passion of Congressman Gohmert coming to the floor of the House and using this floor to speak to people, and using this floor to be able to communicate why we’re here.”