DC Metropolitan Police officer Mike Fanone.Photo: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty
“I have kids,” the father of four is heard saying on footage from his body-worn camera to those who threatened him after stealing his badge, spare ammunition and police radio, according toa video of the harrowing scenebroadcast on CNN.
On Wednesday, during a Congressional hearing about security lapses on that day, several House Republicans attempted to downplay and recast Jan. 6 in less violent terms, and questioned whether supporters of former PresidentDonald Trumpwere even at fault in storming the building to halt the certification of PresidentJoe Biden’s election.
Clyde said that describing the events as an “insurrection” was a “bold-faced lie.”
The officer, who said he suffered a concussion and a heart attack during the violence, pushed backduring an interview Thursday, telling CNN’s Don Lemon, “Peddling that bullsh-t is an assault on every officer that fought to defend the Capitol. It’s disgraceful.”
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“But some things supersede politics,” he said. “You know, this isn’t about the political future of one party. This is about right and wrong.”
The officer added: “I was surrounded. I was being violently assaulted from every direction.”
Dem Says GOP Colleagues Peddling ‘Outrageous, Orwellian Revisionist History’
NBC Newsreports that more than 440 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, which left broken windows and ransacked offices in its wake; five people died in connection with the attack, including Capitol police officerBrian Sicknick.
Clyde acknowledged that a “mob” was unleashed that day.
“As one of the members who stayed in the Capitol, and on the House floor, who with other Republican colleagues helped barricade the door until almost 3 p.m. from the mob who tried to enter, I can tell you the House floor was never breached and it was not an insurrection,” he said, according to NBC News. “This is the truth.”
Rioters did reach the floor of the vacated Senate chamber.
D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Mike Fanone.Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty
“There was an undisciplined mob,” Clyde said. “There were some rioters, and some who committed acts of vandalism. But let me be clear, there was no insurrection and to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bold-faced lie.”
Clyde’s fellow Georgia Republican, Rep. Jody Hice, said: “It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others.”
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Another Republican, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, claimed during Wednesday’s hearing that Babbit had been “executed,” according to thePost. He said law enforcement officials were “harassing peaceful patriots.”
Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, challenged whether those in the mob who were outfitted in pro-Trump shirts, wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and carrying Trump flags were even Trump backers. “I don’t know who did the poll to say that they were Trump supporters,” he said, reportsThe New York Times.
Democrat Jamie Raskin of Maryland would have none of it. “Now we’re getting this outrageous Orwellian revisionist history, where Donald Trump is out there saying that his most loyal followers came in — literally, he said, ‘hugging and kissing’ the Capitol officers,” he said, according to theTimes. “My colleagues should stop with all of the evasions, the diversions and the distractions. Let’s figure out what happened to us on that day.”
Officer Fanone told CNN that any effort to rewrite the narrative as anything other than an assault is wrong.
“I’m not a politician,” he said. “I’m not an elected official. I don’t expect anybody to give two sh-ts about my opinions. But I will say this, you know, those are lies.”
source: people.com
