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Editor’s note: Michael Fanone, a former Washington DC police officer who was injured in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, is the author of the memoir, Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul. He is his CNN Law Enforcement Analyst. The opinions expressed here are his own. Read more opinions on CNN.
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If the Republican Party can finally agree on a speaker, it will spread former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and bring grave consequences to the nation caused by the riots carried out in his name on January 6, 2021. The same Republican leaders who have consistently downplayed the threat. seize power in the House of Representatives.
Whoever takes on the role, and whoever takes the lead in what the last few days have shown is likely to be a messy, even unruly, Republican caucus.
But they get no sympathy from me.This week marks two years since the most violent day of my law enforcement career.From armed rebels who tried to overthrow the government to the Diet Nearly died defending the Capitol, which House GOP Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and many others in his party continue to take lightly. The violent rebels who attacked the Capitol two years ago and nearly took my life ignored my pleas to have children.
Unfortunately, the country is once again facing a major crisis of political violence, with inflammatory rhetoric and the refusal of many right-wing politicians to acknowledge the ongoing spasm of extremism and conspiracy. facing risks.
And conspiracy theorists have a good chunk of the public on their side: politically-motivated attacks are on the rise nationwide, and millions of Americans are now using force to restore Trump to presidency. We believe the exercise is justified. Reversing this dangerous trend is critical.
McCarthy once told me he had no control over the party’s “fringe members” on Jan. 6. But these members are no longer fringe. They are trying to control the House. 118th Congress. Whoever takes over the top seat, the leaders of the House of Representatives have a duty to reject the dangerous rhetoric that has and will continue to provoke political violence here in the country.
Incoming Republican House leaders must find a backbone to condemn the political violence and hateful rhetoric instigated by members of their own party. And it begins by finally blaming Trump, who remains the de facto leader of the Republican Party to this day. The incoming Speaker and the House leadership must demand that party members not amplify their words or take actions that endanger the lives of voters, allies and law enforcement.
There has been no shortage of such reprehensible behavior in recent months, including McCarthy himself. As a Republican leader, McCarthy once lashed out at then-President Trump for inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol, and swallowed those accusations days later. – perhaps with one eye on the speaker’s gavel he longed for – pandering to both the defeated president and the election naysayers at his own caucuses.
An influential Republican congressman has since called the Jan. 6 attacks a “regular tourist visit.” Some called for the execution of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi for treason and shared an anti-Semitic message on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
And that’s just to name a few. Without long-term intervention by top Republican brass, the terrifying trend toward violent rhetoric seems sure to continue.
Our leaders’ words and actions have consequences. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says Jan. 6 uprising ‘would have been armed’ if she had planned – angering supporters before Trump storms Capitol (She later claimed she was being sarcastic, and the comments were made jokingly.)
Many of her right-wing supporters in the House have promoted unsubstantiated, unfettered conspiracy theories about “grooming.” With such outlandish remarks, it’s no wonder angered protesters are overrunning story time in local libraries and calling for a ban on the book from nearby schools.
Examples of recent acts of violence apparently instigated by right-wing rhetoric are too numerous to mention. MAGA’s rhetoric helped fuel an attack at the home of former Speaker Pelosi and vandalism last month at the homes of three New York City Council members, according to alleged anti-LGBTQ activists.
Rep. Matt Gates encouraged voters to arm themselves to vote, and threats of force were made when voters cast their ballots. Research has shown that MAGA Republicans are more likely than others, including moderates in the Republican Party, to support violence that is usually or always justified to advance political ends. After searching for -a-Lago, there was a dramatic spike in Twitter posts threatening the FBI.
The over-the-top rhetoric by Republican lawmakers is troubling enough. Unfortunately, their extremist views were all too evident in the voting records. Includes 35 House Republicans who voted against the creation of the committee on January 6.
And it was a personal insult to me: 21 Republicans voted against D.C. for unjust behavior and Capitol police officers like me for their role in defending the Capitol during riots. Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
It may surprise those who didn’t know me before January 6th, but I don’t consider myself a politician. Yes, I voted for Trump in 2016 after being opposed by leftist anti-police rhetoric.
And indeed, I walked into the last election and ran against a few Trump-inspired candidates who I thought posed a danger to democracy. But I never believed politicians. i believe in people That’s why I support two new groups that demand sanity and accountability from elected politicians.
This week, I will be joining the Veterans, Congressmen, and Courage to America group (I helped found and serve as a leader in this group) at an event calling on lawmakers to step up their fight against political violence. ). Courage for America is joining forces with another new group, Common Defense, to call for a renewed effort to combat the right-wing violence that nearly ended my life. The event’s scheduled venue was the Capitol’s Reflecting Pool, just two years before MAGA supporters hung the country’s vice president amid riot chants “Hang Mike Pence.” I put up a noose that I threatened to use.
As a child, I was always a troublemaker. Law enforcement turned out to be the perfect landing spot for a mischievous kid with no clear sense of direction. Being a cop taught me to stand up for what was right, and being an investigator taught me to continue to revise and refine my conclusions while gathering additional information.
In the past few years since I left the police force, some of the conclusions I’ve drawn have involved the ex-president who sparked the horrific January 6th riots. A lot of this, of course, has to do with the emotional and physical trauma that I and my brothers and sisters officers suffered that day. ’ etc. were literally thrown at me by the same mob who viciously tried to cut us down.
At that moment, I was surrounded by violent, screaming protesters, but all I could see were the faces of children.
I want us to live in a country where elected officials are accountable to the people they serve. Condemning political violence is not a partisan issue. it is moral.
Like so many others, anger and fear of riots unite Americans, united on what should be a common belief: that political violence does not exist in our society. It is up to Republican leaders to join other Americans who deny such actions and the autocratic former president who provoked them.
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