Former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was injured defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, had nothing but contempt for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for his use of the National Guard to take over U.S. cities.
He unloaded on the former Fox News personality turned Pentagon chief on Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "The Weeknight," taking offense as well at Hegseth's comments to generals at his Quantico speech that "We ... don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality, and authority for warfighters."
MSNBC anchor and former RNC chairman Michael Steele said Fanone "knows the streets better than anyone," given his work in the city with law enforcement.
"And if that is now the new mindset, not just of our military, but you're going to bring that now onto our city streets, what does this look like for citizens when the police and the military together begin to engage with that, with those marching orders, particularly noting you don't have to worry about the stupid rules of engagement when you encounter American citizens?"
"As to the speech itself, I think that, you know, this is someone who clearly, in my mind, exhibits imposter syndrome. He's someone who knows that probably all 800 people in that room have absolutely no respect for him whatsoever. Even those that may be politically aligned with ... his belief system, still think that he's a clown."
Essentially, he said, Trump and Hegseth have deployed thousands of troops to be "tourists slinging AR-15s" in D.C.
"And let's say that, you know, one of these go-getters at 18 years old with his AR-15, sees a crime happen in his presence and decides that he himself is going to act, and does so in an incredibly dangerous way that ends up getting a civilian killed," Fanone added. "That's my concern. And that should be the concern of every American."
