DC Cop After Meeting With McCarthy: 'I Need a Drink'

Officer Michael Fanone says he's disappointed with House minority leader's response on Jan. 6 riot
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 26, 2021 8:30 AM CDT
DC Cop After Meeting With McCarthy: 'I Need a Drink'
Michael Fanone, a Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer who was attacked and beaten during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, leaves a meeting with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at the Capitol in Washington on Friday.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone has been asking for weeks to meet with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy about the Capitol riot, and on Friday he finally got his wish. Fanone's first reaction to their conversation: "I need a drink," he told reporters, expressing continued frustration at what he says is a GOP whitewashing of the events that took place on Jan. 6, reports Newsweek. Fanone—who, per the New York Times, met with McCarthy alongside Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Gladys Sicknick, mother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died of a stroke the day after the riot—says he had a few key requests of McCarthy going into the meeting, including for the Republican leader to denounce the 21 GOP congressional members who voted against giving the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who battled the rioters, as well as for McCarthy to push back on GOP conspiracy theories that the FBI was somehow behind the attack.

Fanone—who was stun-gunned and beaten unconscious during the riot, suffering a heart attack and concussion—also wanted McCarthy to censure Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde for his "disgusting" remarks on what transpired on Jan. 6, comparing the attack to a "normal tourist visit." The officer, who was left with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD as a result of the riot, says that while McCarthy vowed to address these issues "at a personal level with some of those members," he gave no sign he would go beyond that. "I think that as the leader of the House Republican Party, it's important to hear those denouncements publicly," Fanone said. Before their sit-down, McCarthy told reporters, "What I talk to my members is what I talk to my members personally about. But if you want to talk to somebody about how they vote, talk to them." As for why he made the drink comment, Fanone elaborated, per Newsweek: "I don't want to be up here on Capitol Hill. I want to be with my daughters." (More Michael Fanone stories.)

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