Jan. 6 Cop Michael Fanone — a CNN Analyst — Slams Network For Hosting ‘Guy Who Tried to Get Me Killed’ in Scorching Op-Ed

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Former D.C. Metro Police Officer Michael Fanone has been one of the most visible faces among the law enforcement officers who have criticized former President Donald Trump for the violence they survived during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. That criticism has now extended to CNN — the very network that employs Fanone as a contributor — after it announced it would host a town hall with Trump Wednesday evening.

The town hall will take place in the critically-important early primary state of New Hampshire, with CNN This Morning co-host Kaitlan Collins moderating questions from New Hampshire GOP voters, as well as asking questions of her own. Reaction to the announcement has ranged from skeptical to outrage, with many questioning whether CNN would be able to handle Trump’s penchant for peddling election lies, continuing to defame E. Jean Carroll even after a $5 million jury verdict in her favor, and other misrepresentations and outright fabrications.

Even Trump himself predicted the town hall “could turn into a disaster for all, including me.”

For Fanone, who suffered devastating injuries during the Capitol attack that ended his two-decade law enforcement career, the issue is personal.

In an op-ed published at Rolling Stone titled “CNN Is Hosting a Town Hall for a Guy Who Tried to Get Me Killed,” Fanone eviscerates the network for “throwing him a rehabilitation party” after the ex-president “tried to end democracy,” describing how hearing the news — via a text from his mother — felt like a “sucker punch.”

Trump’s conduct goes far beyond the lies we typically expect from politicians, Fanone argued, because his specific lies “convinced thousands of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, violently attacking uniformed police officers and terrorizing members of Congress and their staff.”

By attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Fanone continued, Trump “literally betrayed every aspect of his oath to represent us as Americans,” and there was no need to “imagine what Trump is capable of” because “[h]e has shown us that he is an authoritarian who will use any means at his disposal, including violence, to remain in power.”

The risk presented by CNN’s town hall, as Fanone sees it, is that it “normalizes what Trump did” and “sends a message that attempting a coup is just part of the process; that accepting election results is a choice; and that there are no consequences, in the media or in politics or anywhere else, for rejecting them.”

According to Fanone, in the nearly two years that he has worked for CNN, he has had “countless conversations” with his colleagues who work both in front and behind the cameras, about the threats and harassment they faced because of Trump.

“Many employees told me they were afraid to wear anything that identified them as CNN employees when out in public,” wrote Fanone. “So why lend your network’s platform to someone like that?”

For CNN’s part, the network has defended the choice to put Trump on air as the GOP frontrunner and it seems inconceivable the program would wrap without Collins, a veteran of the White House press briefing room, not grilling him about the Carroll verdict and the clear fact that he did not win the 2020 election.

CNN very well may be the best chance the American press corps has to hold Trump’s feet to the fire before the 2024 presidential primary is in full swing. The former president certainly isn’t going to face pointed questions like that from Fox News, Tucker Carlson’s upcoming Twitter show, or other Trump-friendly outlets, and he’s unlikely to consent to a sit-down with the progressive hosts on MSNBC. The critical moment for CNN, and Collins as an emerging talent for the network, will kick off at 8 pm ET Wednesday.