D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone will join CNN as an on-air contributor.
Fanone was injured during the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. According to HuffPost, he submitted his resignation on Monday.
“Clearly there are some members of our department who feel their oath is to Donald Trump and not to the Constitution,” Fanone said. “I no longer felt like I could trust my fellow officers and decided it was time to make a change.”
A CNN representative confirmed to HuffPost that Fanone would join the outlet as an on-air contributor to discuss issues surrounding law enforcement.
In May, CNN aired body-cam footage of an attack on Fanone, as IJR previously reported.
The video showed the police officer being tased. He could be heard “screaming as one of the insurrectionists says, ‘Got one.'”
One voice could be heard saying, “Don’t hurt him” and “We’re better than this.”
At one point, Fanone said, “I have kids.”
CNN reported that he was helped by some people. Still, Fanone was “ultimately knocked unconscious.” He also suffered a minor heart attack during the riot.
“Some of the terminology that was used, like ‘hugs and kisses’ and ‘very fine people,’ is very different from what I experienced and what my co-workers experienced on the 6th,” Fanone said during an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon.
During his testimony before the House select committee investigating the attack, Fanone took aim at lawmakers downplaying the events.
“I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room,” he said. “But too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist — or that hell actually wasn’t that bad.”
Growing frustrated, Fanone added, “The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.”
As The Washington Post noted, Fanone wrote a letter to members of Congress, the D.C. Council and the mayor’s office in May sharing that he has “psychological trauma” and experiences “emotional anxiety” when lawmakers downplay the attack.
