Fox Host holds ‘award ceremony’ to mock the Capitol riots officers
(Picture: Twitter )Fox News anchors Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson faced serious backlash on Tuesday after they mocked the first day of the U.S. Capitol riot committee hearing.
Officers Harry Dunn, Aquilino Gonell, Michael Fanone, and Daniel Hodges testified with their experience of racial abuse, physical attacks and fear of losing their lives while opposing violent Donald Trump advocates on Jan 6.
In a monologue, Ingraham called their testimonies “performance art” before handing out ‘acting awards’ to the officers who testified.
putsch tv pic.twitter.com/GwvTCGu7mm
— John Whitehouse+ (@existentialfish) July 28, 2021
Officer Harry Dunn, shared the harrowing racial abuse he received from pro-Trump rioters. He recalls being called the N-word after attempting to reason with those who claimed Joe Biden had stolen the election. “I responded, ‘Well, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?’” he said. “That prompted a torrent of racial epithets.”
Ingraham mocked the officer with a ‘Best Political Performance’ award and strategically missed out on the clip of Dunn’s experience with racial abuse. “The award for blatant use of party politics when facts fail, the Angle award goes to Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn,” She said.
Officer Gonell described the violence amongst the protesters – who were using hockey sticks, flagpoles, and baseball bats as weapons. He said, “No matter if it is a pen, the way they were using these items, it was to hurt officers.”
Ingraham made a mockery of his statement by saying, “The winner is Aquilino Gonell, who thinks the pen is literally mightier than the sword”, along with a ‘Best Exaggerated Performance’ trophy.
Laura Ingraham is giving out best performance awards to police officers from today’s hearing pic.twitter.com/NyDynIN7rP
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 28, 2021
On Tucker Carlson Tonight, the host also took a jab at officer Gonnell’s emotional speech where he shared how he was more afraid to work at the Capitol than his entire deployment to Iraq.
Carlson responded: “Actually, what happened on January 6, according to the video we do have, does not look a lot like Iraq. It’s not Fallujah.”
The TV host then showed a quieter segment of the Jan 6 riots.
He also addressed his ‘issues’ with Washington DC officer Michael Fanone’s mental health battles after he shared he’d “been left with psychological trauma and emotional anxiety.”
To which, Carlson sarcastically sniggered.
Watch Tucker Carlson literally laugh at DC cop Michael Fanone saying he's "been left with psychological trauma and emotional anxiety" from the Capitol riots.
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 28, 2021
Fanone was nearly beaten to death and suffered a heart attack!
This is truly sociopathic behavior here. pic.twitter.com/VA2QN3Rk5T
He suggested that Fanone should have experienced trauma last year when St. John’s Episcopal Church sustained fire damage.
Twitter was rightly appalled by the prime-time TV hosts’ comments.
And you all gonna tell me that man in Montana confronting this jerk and telling him, he is “the worst human known to man”, was a little too harsh?
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) July 28, 2021
Hell. It wasn’t harsh enough. He should have told Tucker, he is the worst human known to man AND woman!
¡Estúpido! https://t.co/p31oMxCRRm
One called for the show to be cancelled.
Uh this channel needs to be removed from the airwaves
— Erik The Overseer & The Uppity Voting Block (@ErikOverseer) July 28, 2021
Why can’t Fox ever be sued 😡😡😡😡😡
— marybl (@marybl62) July 28, 2021
While others called their actions ‘despicable.’
We’ve always had a choice: We can attack those who attacked our democracy that day, or we can attack those who defended our democracy that day. Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and so many others chose the latter. Despicable. https://t.co/iDIQhTS5G9
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) July 28, 2021
I saw that. I turned to my wife and said, “Did he just chuckle? That’s despicable.”
— Gordon Waugh (@boboosta) July 28, 2021
He also made fun of Adam Kinzinger for tearing up while his voice cracked. I thought empathy and compassion were good things.
