Late last month former President Donald Trump tried to minimize the threat posed by the rioters during the siege at the Capitol building on Jan. 6 by insisting they posed “zero threat” and were even “hugging and kissing” police officers, a horrible lie [1] if there ever was one.
And that sure isn’t how one mother, whose son, a D.C. police officer suffered life-altering injuries in the siege, remembers it, Raw Story [2] reports. In an interview Monday with CNN’s Don Lemon, Terry Fanone said she’s angry at Trump for playing down the situation.
“For us, for our family, and for each and every police officer that I know Michael’s in touch with constantly, it’s outrageous,” she said. “It’s so dehumanizing. It’s so devaluing.”
For her, the worst part of Trump’s remarks was the aftermath that followed, as in there was no aftermath. There was just deafening silence.
“The thing that is so profound is after Trump made those statements, the silence that followed — and where was the outrage from other people who were there … and the silence to me implies indifference, and I could be wrong, but indifference and complicity,” she told Lemon.
Her son Michael Fanone, was zapped with a taser several times and hit with a flag pole as the riot unfolded. He suffered a heart attack and a concussion on Jan. 6 and now must deal with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder as well.
“That doesn’t even begin to tell the story,” Terry Fanone added. “It doesn’t even begin to tell the story of what our family went through and what he went through that day.”
At one point Lemon asked Fanone what she would like to tell Trump and his supporters “who are pushing these lies, what would you say to him?” Her response was simple and direct.
“Where’s your courage? Where’s your courage?” was her first response.
But then she touched on the enormity of the situation, and like so many of us, seems to be well aware that Trump is in his own little world. Enough so that dealing with him would be a waste of time.
“There’s so much more to this story but so many people are afraid to come out and to speak, and to speak the truth. The silence is so palpable and it’s just outrageous,” she said. “For me to say anything to Trump would be, it wouldn’t matter because he just can’t hear. It’s all the other people that are so complicit in this, um, that’s who I would speak to, is that, that’s who I would speak to — ‘How dare you, how dare you, how DARE you take advantage of these people who were defending and fighting for their lives that day to save these people, preserve democracy, civility, to restore the Capitol to what it’s supposed to be.'”
“Where are you? All of these officers stood with you, why don’t you stand with them?
Indeed. But then the only thing the people who committed these horrible acts, each and every one of them Trump supporters, were on a misguided mission, and they were determined to subvert democracy. Fortunately, they were unsuccessful. But how absolutely sad for people like Michael Fanone and his family, and all of the other families of officers who now have to suffer the consequences of these deluded people.
I’ve included a clip of the interview below.
Terry Fanone, mother of DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was injured during the January 6 insurrection, says lawmakers' silence over former Pres. Trump's lies about the Capitol riot implies "complicity." pic.twitter.com/HBkJSv79n8 [3]
— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) March 30, 2021 [4]