Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a heart attack after being beaten by the pro-Trump insurrectionists at the Capitol on January 6, slammed ex-President Donald Trump and the lawmakers who have been downplaying the events of that day.
“It’s been very difficult seeing elected officials and other individuals kind of whitewash the events of that day or downplay what happened,” Fanone told CNN anchor Don Lemon on Tuesday night.
The officer said that ex-President Donald Trump’s false claim that the insurrectionists were giving “hugs and kisses” during the attack was “very different from what I experienced and what my co-workers experienced on the 6th.”
Trump’s rosy framing of the attack was “dangerous,” Fanone said.
“I experienced a group of individuals that were trying to kill me to accomplish their goal,” he told Lemon before pausing to take a deep breath.
“Man, I didn’t think I’d get this emotional,” the officer said after a few moments. “I mean, I experienced the most brutal, savage hand-to-hand combat of my entire life, let alone my policing career, which spans almost two decades. It was nothing that I had ever thought would be a part of my law enforcement career and nor was I prepared to experience.”
Near the end of the interview, Fanone emphasized again the indisputable violence and brutality at the hands of the Trump supporters.
“January 6th was real. It didn’t happen in a fucking movie studio in California,” he said.
Though Fanone did not specifically mention that the “elected officials” he was calling out were Republicans, it has been exclusively GOP lawmakers like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) who are attempting to push that false narrative about the Capitol siege. Their effort to muddy the waters around the events of that day are seemingly part of an effort to obscure their role in fueling the insurrection by joining Trump’s attempt to delegitimize the 2020 presidential election.
Watch Fanone below:
Police officer who was beaten during the Capitol insurrection says it's been "very difficult" watching lawmakers downplay the attack. pic.twitter.com/atpcOSyQ7p
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 28, 2021
