Lindsey Graham and Kevin McCarthy busted by Michael Fanone in tell-all book
Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy (Graham photo by AFP, McCarthy photo by Nicholas Kamm for AFP)
October 07, 2022
In a memoir to be published next week, former Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone provided details about how he and other DC cops were treated by the powers that be after the Jan. 6 insurrection -- with the ex-cop particularly singling out Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his own union bosses who he feels let him and his fellow officers down in the aftermath.
Following the insurrection that left Fanone hospitalized with a heart attack, the veteran cop has become the public face of the officers who battled with supporters of Donald Trump as they stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
In his book "Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul," Fanone documents how his truth-telling about the events of that day made some of his fellow officers turn on him afterward and how poorly he and other officers were treated by some Republican office holders in private meetings.
As detailed by Politico's Michael Schaffer, Fanone's life since he came forward publically on the Capitol attack, has been one loaded with harassment, writing: "They’ve shown up at his house and the homes of his mom, dad and ex-wife; they’ve made the onetime Donald Trump voter and self-described 'redneck cop' afraid of what might happen to him in the isolated rural hunting redoubt that used to be his 'safe place' away from the life of an urban vice officer."
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In one telling segment in Fanone's book, which Schaffer claims is described in "cringey detail," private meetings with GOP leaders go badly with Graham, in particular, reportedly more interested in defending the former president than hearing details about the rightwing riots.
According to the Politico report, "The author made surreptitious recordings of his interactions with the likes of House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, national Fraternal Order of Police President Patrick Yoes, and leaders of Fanone’s own local, among others."
"Thus we see McCarthy, finally taking a meeting with Fanone, fellow Jan, 6 hero Harry Dunn, and the mother of late Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, lamely try to run out the clock on their conversation. We see Graham snap at Gladys Sicknick that 'we’re going to end the meeting right now' if she keeps speaking ill of Trump," the report continues before adding, "And we see Yoes telling Fanone that he’s waiting for direction from the local lodge about Jan. 6 advocacy — and the leader of that lodge telling Fanone that 'I’m hesitant to start putting out information one way or the other about January 6' because of political divisions among membership."
Fanone also recounts how poorly he has been treated by his some of his fellow officers, with Schaffer writing, "In a meeting he chronicles at the union’s D.C. hall, Dunn is scolded after asking why the leadership hadn’t defended officers against the claim that the shooting of Ashli Babbitt was murder. A local honcho, meanwhile, gives Fanone grief for appearing on CNN 'when they talk bad about law enforcement.' And Yoes, to Fanone’s amazement, tells the room that Trump, at FOP insistence, had in fact told the crowd to stand down that day."
In an interview with Schaffer, Fanone explained, "In reality, what it is is Trumpism,” before adding, "And it’s a loyalty to Donald Trump because he says things like, ‘We love our law enforcement officers.’ And, you know, there’s a lot of police officers at the Metropolitan Police Department and other law enforcement agencies that participated in the defense of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, that still do not accept the reality of what January 6th was.”
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