D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was one of those defending the Capitol against rampaging Trump supporters on January 6, appeared on CNN this week, where he discussed the need for “accountability” in the wake of the riot. Fanone was among the officers who personally experienced the viciousness of the Capitol mob — at the Capitol that day, he was physically assaulted to the point of having a heart attack. On CNN, he spoke about how Trump is continuing to spread lies like those which drove the riot, which was inspired by false claims that the presidential election had been stolen for Biden, although no court has ever accepted this notion.
Fanone began, in part, by commenting as follows:
‘[Accountability] is what this whole process has been about for me. It’s accountability for elected officials and individuals involved in their political apparatus who may have contributed to the events of that day, either through their inciting rhetoric or through some overt action. Just as much as it’s about getting accountability for the individuals who perpetrated the attack, not just on me but on the Capitol complex itself and the hundreds of other officers that responded that day to defend the Capitol.’
Besides getting to addressing Trump’s own role in what’s going on, Fanone also spoke about the response of certain investigative targets to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. On Thursday, the House was set to approve a contempt finding against top Trump ally Steve Bannon, who had been subpoenaed by the riot investigation committee but refused to testify or provide documents. A referral to the Justice Department for potential prosecution would follow the approval of the contempt finding by the full House.
As Fanone put it, discussing Bannon and the others:
‘Me, myself and many other Americans are taking this very seriously, and I want to see those individuals take it seriously, and if they don’t, they need to be held accountable… Until there is real accountability, or every means of attaining accountability has been exhausted, I will continue to bring attention to the events of January 6 and how we got here.’
After viewing footage of Trump supporters who were recently pushing conspiracy theories insisting that the Capitol attack wasn’t actually perpetrated by Trump supporters, Fanone noted that while the individuals in the video are responsible for themselves, “it doesn’t help when your elected leaders are lying to you about the events of January 6, not participating in or being dishonest about the discussion as to how we got here, and continuing to pledge fealty to a leader [Trump] whose, I think, only interest is self-interest and continues to perpetrate lies for his own political gain.” Watch Fanone’s comments below:
