More than a few D.C. Republicans are weasels. That’s really the only way to describe them (apologies to actual weasels who benefit the planet). But these two-legged weasels are little more than cowards as they ignore and avoid Capitol Police officers who were on duty when the deadly riot broke out at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, many of whom suffered serious injuries during the melee.
That’s been the case for U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, who was himself injured on that fateful day, The Independent [1] reports.
In a Thursday interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Gonell vented his frustrations over people who continue to minimize what happened on that day.
“You have a lot of the people we protected on that day downplaying what happened,” he said. “Sometimes I run into them in the hallway and they pretend not to see me. They avoid me or bolt to the right or the left or pretend to be doing something else … I don’t hold any grudges. I’m still going to be respectful to them, but they don’t want to talk to me.”
“Only [Illinois Republican] Adam Kinzinger and [Wyoming Republican] Liz Cheney have approached” the sergeant to ask about his recovery after the riot. Kinzinger and Cheney are the only Republicans on the January 6 committee after the party boycotted the committee en masse. Both were invited to participate in the committee by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“It’s just disgraceful” MSNBC host Willie Geist remarked, followed by Mika Brzezinski, who called the Republicans cowards.
“That’s coming from all the people protected, whether elected officials or not,” Gonell said. “You know, it is disheartening. I’m not saying that I need that from them, but that shows a lot from the people who claim that they support the police and back the blue and are pro-law and order.”
The sergeant appeared on the program to discuss the latest findings by the House Select Committee investigating the attack in a hearing held Tuesday. But this is reminiscent of an unpleasant situation D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone was forced to deal with in June 2021.
At the time he encountered Georgia GOP congressman Andrew Clyde in an elevator.
“I was very cordial,” Fanone told CNN.
Clyde, however, was not.
Fanone said he “extended my hand to shake his hand. He just stared at me. I asked if he was going to shake my hand, and he told me he didn’t know who I was. So I introduced myself.”
“I said that I was officer Michael Fanone. That I was a D.C. Metropolitan police officer who fought on 6 January to defend the Capitol and as a result, I suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as a heart attack after being tased several times at the base of my skull, as well as being severely beaten,” Fanone told Clyde. “At that point, the congressman turned away from me.”
Then, according to Fanone, Clyde “pulled out his cellphone and started thumbing through the apps,” possibly to record the conversation.
But as soon as the elevator doors opened, Clyde “ran as quickly as he could, like a coward.”
Frankly, that’s an apt description for people who do things like this.
I am not a person who is particularly fond of police officers. I had a harrowing experience with police when I was a teenager doing nothing more than lying on my mom’s living room couch and dealing with the flu at the time. But I have a different feeling about those Capitol and Metropolitan police officers who risked everything to save people inside the Capitol building from the deranged mob outside. Some officers lost their lives. Others suffered grievous injuries, but most if not all of them did everything they could to save lives.
So those Republicans like Clyde, who do things like this don’t seem to have any sense of shame, any sense of decency.
How sad. But they are Republicans, after all.
Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who suffered permanent injuries defending the Capitol on 1/6, says Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) are the only two Republicans who have checked in on him:
Gonell: “Shows a lot from the people who claim that they support the police.” pic.twitter.com/wSVsonAFF9 [2]
— The Recount (@therecount) July 14, 2022 [3]