In a harrowing description of what happened to him during the Capitol insurrection, DC Metro Police Officer Michael Fanone also delivered a scathing condemnation of Republican lawmakers.

Republicans have been resisting a full investigation of the events of January 6th, even going so far as to block the creation of an independent commission and trying to seat Republicans who will work to sabotage to select committee, which began hearing testimony on Tuesday.

Fanone began by describing his experiences that day in vivid horrifying detail.

“I thought I had seen it all, many times over. Yet what I witnessed and experienced on January 6th, 2021, was unlike anything I had ever seen, anything I’d ever experienced or could have imagined in my country,” Fanone said.

“I was grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country,” he continued. “I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm, as I heard chants of ‘kill him with his own gun.’ I could still hear those words in my head today. At some point during the fighting, I was dragged from the line of officers and into the crowd. I heard someone scream ‘I got one!’ as I was swarmed by a violent mob. They ripped off my badge, they grabbed and stripped me of my radio. They seized ammunition that was secured to my body. They began to beat me with their fists and with what felt like hard metal objects.”

Fanone went on to further detail how he was tased “over and over again” and had to beg for his life by telling his attackers that he has a family.

And then what Republicans fear most happened as Fanone delivered an indictment of their behavior since that day.

“What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or outright denying what happened,” Fanone said. “I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room, but too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist or that hell actually wasn’t that bad.”

Indeed, Republicans have insisted that the insurrection was nothing but a “peaceful” protest even though several police officers were assaulted and the violent mob damaged property outside and inside the building as they searched for lawmakers to assassinate in an attempt to overthrow democracy.

“The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!” Fanone angrily charged. “My law enforcement career prepared me to cope with some of the aspects of this experience. Being an officer, you know your life is at risk whenever you walk out the door, even if you don’t expect otherwise law-abiding citizens to take up arms against you. But nothing — truly nothing — has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day, and in doing so, betray their oath of office. Those very members whose lives, offices, staff members I was fighting so desperately to defend.”

Here’s the video via YouTube:

This is why Republicans so desperately opposed a full investigation of the insurrection. They know that it will be damning against them as witness testimony and evidence pile up showing their culpability. In the end, even Republicans who have whined the most about this committee, including Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) could be called to testify. Some Republicans may even be outed for aiding the insurrectionists or helping them plan the attack, neither of which looks good ahead of the 2022 midterm election.

It’s not a good day to be a Republican, but it’s a good day for America because this is where accountability starts.

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