On Jan. 6, 2021, during the attack on our Capitol building and our fragile democracy, Officer Brian Sicknick was injured. A few hours after leaving the scene, he returned to his division office, where he suffered two strokes and died. Two of the insurgents at the Capitol that day were accused of assaulting Sicknick with a powerful “chemical irritant” during the attack, but the prosecutors felt they could not directly attach that exposure to officer Sicknick’s death.
Officer Sicknick’s mother, Gladys, is one focus of an advertisement created by the Republican Accountability Project and set to run in Arizona markets this week. In the campaign ad, Ms. Sicknick speaks about her son’s death and calls out people like MAGA-mush gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, Kari Lake. It is straight to the point:
“Lake is very dangerous for our country. She saw what happened on Jan. 6, and continues to spread the Big Lie. And we're going to have more violence because people, they believe whatever she says. It's very dire for our democracy, for our country. With candidates like Kari Lake. My son died because of people like Kari Lake.”
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace had on Officer Michael Fanone to talk about the upcoming elections and his work to bring accountability and achieve real justice after the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Officer Fanone was injured after he joined Capitol officers in defending the building where our entire Congress was gathered in order to peacefully transfer power from the previous administration to the considerably more palatable President Joe Biden.
Officer Fanone has been very clear and blunt in his analysis and criticisms of elected officials playing politics with our justice system. His response to the new advertisement was no less crystal.
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Officer Fanone said he thought the advertisement was good and consistent with what he and other survivors of the events of Jan. 6, 2021, believe. It does not matter what your politics are in this respect. “I've gotten to know Mr. Sicknick pretty well. And I thought that was a powerful ad. I mean, she's out there, I think, trying to do what all of us are trying to do here, which is bring accountability for January 6.”
The advertisement is set to run in Arizona markets, in these final days before voters decide whether Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs or MAGA-brain trust candidate Kari Lake will be the next governor. Officer Fanone believes that targeting Kari Lake, who has espoused every hare-brained conspiracy theory fascists enjoy ruminating about these days, is consistent with a message of patriotism. “I also support the fact that Kari Lake’s a piece of shit. So I'm glad she [Sicknick] did that ad.”
You can watch both the advertisement followed by Fanone’s comments below.
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