Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) refused to shake hands with Metro PD Officer Michael Fanone who helped to defend the Capitol against a mob of Trump supporters on Jan 6.
According to the Washington Post, Officer Fanone went to Capitol Hill to speak to members of Congress who voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Capitol Police officers who responded to the attack.
Rep. Clyde, who compared Jan. 6 to “a normal tourist visit” to the Capitol, was one such member. Fanone said when he stepped in an elevator on Capitol Hill he saw the congressman and based on his reaction, Officer Fanone said he knew Clyde recognized him.
“I knew immediately he recognized me by the way he reacted. He completely froze. He just stared at me.” Fanone said. Clyde refused to greet the officer and after he explained the purpose of his visit to the Hill, the congressman “turned away from me, pulled out his cellphone and started thumbing through the apps,” according to Fanone.
Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell (Calif.) told MSNBC that Officer Fanone called him very upset, minutes after leaving his office and told him that Clyde recorded their interaction on his cell phone “like he was some sort of a criminal.”
Officer Fanone was one of the more than 140 officers injured on January 6. He was dragged from the line of police officers defending the Capitol into the crowd of Trump supporters where he was tased and beaten unconscious, he subsequently suffered a heart attack.
At a House hearing last month with former Trump administration officials about the response to the attack, Rep. Clyde downplayed the deadly insurrection, likening the violence on Jan. 6 to a “normal tourist visit” to the Capitol.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) is a coward!