Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone does not think much of CNN's decision to host a town hall featuring former President Donald Trump.
In an essay published in Rolling Stone, Fanone argued that CNN is "throwing a rehabilitation party" for "a guy who tried to get me killed" by inciting a deadly riot at the United States Capitol building on January 6th, 2021.
In denouncing Trump as unworthy of a platform, Fanone singled out his repeated lies about the "rigged" 2020 election that inspired his supporters to violently attack Congress in an effort to block the certification of President Joe Biden's victory.
And in addition to the riot itself, Fanone argues, Trump showed that he was willing to destroy the entire American republic to get his way.
IN OTHER NEWS: George Santos hit with 13 criminal charges including wire fraud and money laundering
"It is not just that Trump’s lies and political rhetoric sparked an uprising at our nation’s capital," he writes. "Trump, as then-President of the U.S., lied in an effort to defraud the American people and overturn a free and fair election in an attempt to remain in power... In doing so he literally betrayed every aspect of his oath to represent us as Americans. We no longer need to imagine what Trump is capable of. He has shown us that he is an authoritarian who will use any means at his disposal, including violence, to remain in power."
In other words, he writes, Trump is not just any other politician but instead a threat whose presence must not be sanctioned by respectable news outlets.
"Putting him onstage, having him answer questions like a normal candidate who didn’t get people killed in the process of trying to end the democracy he’s attempting to once again run, normalizes what Trump did," he charges. "It sends a message that attempting a coup is just part of the process; that accepting election results is a choice; and that there are no consequences, in the media or in politics or anywhere else, for rejecting them."
Read the full essay at this link.
