If there is anything we know about Republicans, it is that they love cops. They just love, love, love, love, love them and will stand by them no matter what they do. #TeamBlueLivesMatter for sure.

Well, at least when the cops are just out there killing unarmed Black people. The second they become an inconvenience to Republicans, it becomes "Oh! My Thin Blue Line Flag that for some reason doesn't make me think of people being wrongfully convicted? I forgot it at home."

For quite some time now, Washington DC police officer Michael Fanone, who was severely injured in the January 6 insurrection, has been trying to set up a meeting to discuss his assault with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. And on Friday, that finally happened.

Kevin McCarthy met with Officer Fanone, along with Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, a black officer who endured a barrage of racial slurs from angry Trumpists during the riots, and Gladys Sicknick, whose son Brian Sicknick was killed in them.

All Officer Fanone wanted, really, was for Rep. McCarthy to do his job and publicly denounce the ridiculous lies being told by his fellow House Republicans about the January 6 insurrection and also get them to please stop telling those lies, on account of the fact that they are harmful and pretty fucking insulting to Fanone and the other officers who were there that day. Not to mention how insulting it was to the intelligence of the entire nation, who saw things live on television and were thus totally aware that the riots were not, as Rep. Andrew Clyde claimed, just like a "normal tourist visit" (For who? Genghis Khan?).

Fanone had hoped McCarthy would publicly denounce Clyde's comments and admonish him for them, along with other bizarre lies told by House Republicans. Like Paul Gosar claiming that the Capitol police "executed" Ashli Babbit. He hoped he would also denounce the 21 House Republicans who childishly voted against giving Congressional Gold Medals to the officers who responded to the situation, because they wanted to pretend that the events on January 6 were actually a lovely and peaceful demonstration and/or tourist visit.

He asked McCarthy to "publicly denounce the baseless theory that the F.B.I. was behind the Jan. 6 insurrection." as well.

Surprise, he got absolutely none of this. Rather, McCarthy said that he would discuss these lies privately and "address it in a personal level with some of those members," but would not say anything publicly.

"What I talk to my members is what I talk to my members personally about," McCarthy told Officer Fanone. "But if you want to talk to somebody about how they vote, talk to them."

Why? Well, probably because he doesn't want to piss off the people who vote for him and vote for other Republicans, 76 percent of whom blame the attacks on "left-wing protesters" (probably Antifa Supersoldiers in clever disguises, who have been living undercover as virulent Republicans their entire lives) and 47 percent of whom would describe what happened on January 6 as a "legitimate protest." And some percentage of whom, clearly, must think it was both of those things, at the same time, somehow.

I would love to act surprised that Kevin McCarthy would not take a brave stand for truth, justice and the American way and publicly denounce all of the lies his colleagues were telling, but I would be a lot more surprised if he did. "Principled Republicans" are a species that exists only in the imaginations of Democrats who have watched one too many episodes of The West Wing. McCarthy, like other Republicans, knows who pays his bills, knows who votes for him and does what they want so that they continue to vote for him. He also knows who is not going to vote for him, and that is pretty much anyone who would give him any kind of credit for calling out these lies.

Officers Fanone and Dunn asked McCarthy to be judicious in which Republicans he put on the select congressional panel to investigate the events of January 6, and he said he would take things seriously, which we can assume means that Marjorie Taylor Greene already has a saved seat.

[Washington Post]

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