‘Disgraceful’ That Only 1 GOP Lawmaker Came to January 6 Memorial

• Michael Fanone was critical of the lackluster attendance by the GOP at the Jan. 6, 2001, Capitol remembrance event.
• He told CNN’s Jake Tapper that it was an embarrassment to their party and disgraceful behavior.
• Multiple outlets reported that Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican lawmaker, was the only one present at Friday’s event.

On Friday, former DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone blasted Republican legislators on Capitol Hill for their insufficient attendance at a remembrance event honoring law enforcement officers who protected the complex during the Capitol Riot. He called the lack of support “disgraceful.”

Fanone, who was a Metropolitan Officer for around 20 years, told CNN that he doesn’t like to “paint anyone with a broadbrush” but that he found the GOP reaction to this event to be “embarrassing.”

Multiple outlets including Insider, reported that only GOP congressman — Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — was apparently in attendance at the Friday ceremony dominated by Democratic lawmakers.

Fanone stated, “Over the past two-years that I’ve been outspoken regarding January 6th,” Fanone. told CNN’s Jake TapperDuring an interview. “No one likes being painted with a broad brush. This is something that law enforcement doesn’t like, and I don’t believe that all Republicans support the MAGA agenda.

He continued, “That said, it’s very hard to defend the Republican Party if only one of their members shows up and supports law enforcement that was there protecting them that day.” It’s disgraceful. It’s embarrassing for their party and disgraceful behavior.”

Fanone, who received the Presidential Citizens Medal — one of the nation’s highest civilian awards — from President Joe Biden during a White House ceremony on Friday, decried the scant GOP attendance at the Capitol event.

Tapper was told by the ex-police officer that he had supported Republican candidates in the past. “But they seem like a party, at the moment in time, which is without shame.”

Fitzpatrick (an ex-FBI supervisory special agent), will take place after the Capitol ceremony. told Insider’s Bryan MetzgerBecause he wanted to be there for the solemn event.

He said, “I wanted to come here.”

Fitzpatrick told ABC NewsJanuary 6, was “a terrible date that we cannot allow to happen again.”

Republicans on Friday morning were still mired in a leadership crisis amid a revolt among the party’s right flank — as Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California had not yet clinched the House speakership — with a morning GOP conference call overlapping with the ceremony. Insider claims that the ceremony was completed within minutes of the scheduled call’s start. However, the House did not resume efforts to select a speaker until noon the next day.

The January 6 ceremony was focused on remembering law enforcement officials — including Brian D. Sicknick — who died after the riot, along with four police officers who died by suicide after the attack.

Sicknick — who fought back the mob at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 — suffered two strokes and died of natural causes the next day, according toFrancisco J. Diaz, Washington, DC, was quoted as saying that “all that happened played a part in his condition.”