Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[BullNBear52]

Officer Injured in Capitol Riot Asks McCarthy to Disavow Lies About It
Officer Michael Fanone, who was injured by the mob, said he came away disappointed from his meeting with Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/us/kevin-mccarthy-capitol-riot-officer.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage


...So on Friday, when Officer Fanone finally got his session with Mr. McCarthy at the Capitol, he had a clear request at the ready: for the minority leader to publicly denounce the lies Republican lawmakers have been telling about the deadly attack. He wanted Mr. McCarthy to push them to stop downplaying the storming of the building, blaming left-wing extremists for an assault carried out by former President Donald J. Trump’s right-wing supporters and spreading the baseless conspiracy theory that the F.B.I. secretly planned it.

He came away disappointed.

“He said he would address it at a personal level, with some of those members,” Officer Fanone told reporters after the roughly hourlong meeting. “I think that as the leader of the House Republican Party, it’s important to hear those denouncements publicly.”

Mr. McCarthy, who phoned Mr. Trump during the riot to plead with him to call off the mob and days later said the president bore responsibility for the rampage, has since swung wildly in the other direction. He later said Mr. Trump was not to blame, led the charge to purge Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming from the party leadership for speaking out against the former president and rallied his party to oppose the formation of an independent commission to investigate the assault.


...But Officer Fanone’s account of their conversation matched what Mr. McCarthy had told reporters before the private session, when he suggested that he might talk to some of his members privately about their comments but would not criticize them openly or take issue with their votes.

“What I talk to my members is what I talk to my members personally about,” Mr. McCarthy said. “But if you want to talk to somebody about how they vote, talk to them.”

Spineless.