The former District of Columbia police officer who suffered a heart attack after being beaten and attacked with a stun gun during the 6 January insurrection is now comparing the former president who incited the Capitol riot to a mentally unstable former lover.
“There's just no bottom to what it is he's willing to say,” said former Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone said of Donald Trump on Monday during an appearance on CNN, where Mr Fanone now works as a law enforcement analyst.
Mr Fanone was one of the many Metropolitan Police officers who responded to calls for assistance from the US Capitol Police as a pro-Trump mob stormed the building in hopes of keeping Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
According to court documents, Mr Fanone was beaten by a group of Trump supporters who stripped him of his police badge and police radio, and were allegedly attempting to relieve him of his service weapon in order to murder him with it.
The ex-police officer was reacting to comments made by former President Trump at a Texas campaign rally on Saturday, in which Mr Trump suggested he would pardon people convicted of crimes stemming from their participation in the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814.
The former law enforcement officer, who resigned from the DC police force in December, said Mr Trump “still has a great deal of support in this country” from people who he said had “already proven … that they're willing to commit violence on his behalf”.
"He's like America's crazy ex and he's just decided that if he can't have us, no one can and he's going to tear apart our democracy and our country if he can't get reelected,” he said.
