Michael Fanone, a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, took aim at Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) on Wednesday night after the GOP lawmaker snubbed him.
Appearing on CNN, Fanone — who was beaten unconscious and suffered a concussion as well as a mild heart attack after voluntarily responding to the breaching of the Capitol on Jan. 6 — expressed his dismay over what he called “disgusting” behavior from Clyde upon encountering the GOP lawmaker outside of an elevator at the Capitol.
Fanone said he was “very cordial” to Clyde. The officer claimed Clyde gave him the cold shoulder.
“I 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 that he didn’t who know I was,” Fanone said.
Fanone recalled introducing himself to Clyde, explaining that he was a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6. Fanone told Clyde that he was severely beaten, suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as a heart attack after having been tased numerous times during the Capitol attack.
Fanone said that Clyde then simply “turned away” from him, and that once the elevator doors opened, the GOP lawmaker “ran as quickly as he could, like a coward.”
Fanone’s rebuke of Clyde comes on the heels of the Georgia congressman being among the 21 House Republicans who voted against the bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Capitol Police and other law enforcement who responded to the Jan. 6 attack.
Clyde has also repeatedly downplayed the violence of the deadly Capitol insurrection and then-President Trump’s role in helping incite the attack on the day of the joint session of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Prior to Senate Republicans deploying the filibuster to kill legislation that would have created a bipartisan commission investigating the Capitol attack, Fanone accompanied the relatives of late Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick in lobbying GOP senators to support the passage of the commission bill.
Watch Fanone’s remarks below:
Officer Fanone says Rep. Clyde wouldn’t shake his hand. He says when the elevator doors opened, Rep. Clyde ran away like a coward. pic.twitter.com/gC0dTmDNs6
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 17, 2021
