Donald Trump allegedly called police officers “pussies” for their performance during the January 6 Capitol insurrection while saying that one of the rioters was an “innocent, wonderful, incredible woman.” And Capitol police officers are speaking out about the homophobic abuse they have been getting from Trump supporters.
A new report from The Daily Beast based on two sources who spoke with journalists says that Trump’s reaction to police officers testifying about the Capitol insurrection was to call them the sexist and homophobic slurs and question their strength of character.
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According to the sources, Trump is saying that “the police officers who defended the Capitol that day aren’t the real heroes, calling them liberal ‘pussies’ who loathe MAGA, and outliers within a broadly pro-Trump law enforcement community.”
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“Trump has also maintained that these men seem ‘broke[n]’ by the events of Jan. 6, and that they do not have the supposed toughness or character of the law enforcement officers who, on the whole nationally, still widely support Trump and his policies,” the report continues, adding that Trump believes Capitol police are “letting themselves be used as pawns by anti-Trump Democrats.”
Trump had more kind words for Ashli Babbitt – an Air Force veteran who as at the front of the angry mob that stormed the Capitol who was shot by officers as she tried to climb through glass broken on a door leading to a room where members of Congress had been evacuated to for their safety.
According to the sources, Trump has been saying that Babbitt “wasn’t so much a rioter as she was an ‘innocent, wonderful, incredible woman.'”
The Justice Department has cleared the officer who shot her of wrongdoing.
Trump and other major Republicans held a rally on January 6 in D.C. as Congress was ceremonially accepting each state’s vote in the 2020 presidential election. Speakers at the rally told the crowd that President Joe Biden secretly stole millions of ballots and encouraged the mob to march to Congress.
The Trump supporters entered the Capitol while chanting for the death of former Vice President Mike Pence – who was presiding over the Senate – carrying weapons and constructing a noose outside of the building in an attempt to stop the election results from being officially accepted and to install Trump as president. Members of Congress and Pence were rushed to safety and five people died.
Congress is currently holding hearings on the Capitol insurrection.
Despite the right’s usual unquestioning support for law enforcement officers’ actions – even when they are of questionable legality – Capitol police officers have been the targets of rightwing ire because they are giving first-hand accounts of the Capitol insurrection.
D.C. police officer Michael Fanone went on Don Lemon’s CNN show and played a recording of just one violent and homophobic message he got on CNN. Fanone suffered a traumatic brain injury and a heart attack and was diagnosed with PTSD as a result of the insurrection.
“Yeah, this is for Michael Fanone, Metropolitan Police officer,” the anonymous caller said. “You’re on trial right now, lying. You want an Emmy? An Oscar? What are you trying to go for here? You’re so full of shit you little fucking faggot. You’re a little pussy, man. I could slap you up the side your head with a backhand and knock you out, you little faggot.”
“You’re a punk faggot. You’re a lying fuck. How about all that scummy Black fucking scum for two years destroying our cities and burning ’em and stealing all that shit out of the stores and everything. How about that? Assaulting cops and killing people? How about that, you faggot?”
“That was shit on the goddamn Capitol. I wish they woulda killed all you scumbags ’cause you people are scum. They stole the election from Trump and you know that, you scumbag. And fucking too bad they didn’t beat the shit out of you more. You’re a piece of shit. You’re a little fag, you fucking scumbag.”
DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone joins @donlemon in the studio tonight after his testimony to the Select Committee investigating January 6th.
Hear the shocking voicemail he received during his testimony – and a warning – the language is graphic. Listen: pic.twitter.com/U9AqFamzzr
— Don Lemon Tonight (@DonLemonTonight) July 28, 2021
