Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone angrily berated the very elected Republican House and Senate members who have downplayed the January 6 insurrection, calling their behavior “disgraceful!” as he slammed the table with his hand.
“What makes the struggle harder and more painful, is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend are downplaying or outright denying what happened,” Fanone told members of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. “I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them in the people in this room. But too many are now telling me that ‘hell’ doesn’t exist or that ‘hell’ actually wasn’t that bad.”
“The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!” Fanone exclaimed in a stirring moment of testimony.
“My law enforcement career prepared me to cope with some of the aspects of this experience. Being an officer you know, your life is at risk whenever you walk out the door,” Fanone continued. He suffered a heart attack on January 6, and suffers from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder because of the attack on the Capitol.
“Even if you don’t expect otherwise law abiding citizens to take up arms against you. But nothing, truly nothing, has prepared me to address those elected members of our government, who continue to deny the events of that day. And in doing so, betray their oath of office.”
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