Jan. 6 Capitol Officer Tells MSNBC It’s ‘Disheartening’ They Need Robert De Niro to Get Media Attention — After Wild Presser Network Didn’t Carry
Former Capitol police officer Michael Fanone said on Tuesday he was “incredibly grateful” for actor Robert De Niro joining him and fellow former Capitol officer Harry Dunn outside Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan.
De Niro, Dunn, and Fanone held a press conference on behalf of President Joe Biden’s campaign outside the Manhattan trial where closing arguments were given on Tuesday. The former president is facing more than 30 felony counts for falsifying business records. He’s accused of concealing hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair. He’s denied knowledge of hush money payments and that an affair ever happened.
Fanone and Dunn, both of whom were present and injured on Jan. 6, spoke to MSNBC’s Vaughn Hillyard following the wild press conference featuring De Niro. The actor, who recently featured in a Biden ad, predicted the end of American democracy and possibly the world if Trump is reelected to the White House.
De Niro also got into a tense exchange with a pro-Trump heckler who accused Fanone and Dunn of lying under oath when they testified to the congressional subcommittee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Both men are vocal Trump supporters.
“I don’t even know how to deal with you, my friend. I don’t even know how to deal with you. They stood there. They didn’t have to,” De Niro said after the heckler called the officers “traitors.” “And there were other ones in there who probably were in with them a little bit, too. And they found a way to get around. Not these guys. They stood there and fought for us. For you. For you.”
Fanone said he was “incredibly grateful” to De Niro after the presser, but he called it disheartening that the Oscar-winning actor was needed to draw press attention to the potential dangers of Trump. MSNBC and CNN did not carry the press conference live, however, while Fox News did cover the presser, including De Niro’s comments.
“I am incredibly grateful for Robert De Niro lending his celebrity and his voice to this cause. That being said, I think that it’s disheartening to know that’s what it takes three and a half years after an insurrection in the Capitol in which hundreds of officers were brutalized and our democracy was threatened to get the media’s attention,” Fanone said.
The former officer did not specifically name any networks, but accused some of “mischaracterizing” the events of Jan. 6.
“There’s still networks out there that are mischaracterizing the facts of that day, mischaracterizing the events that led up to the insurrection at the Capitol, and then there are other networks that just turned away from the insurrection as if we can just forget about it and move beyond it,” he said.
Watch above via MSNBC.
