Ex-DC officer rips CNN for Trump town hall: He ‘tried to get me killed’

Michael Fanone, a former police officer who was at the Capitol on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, is lambasting CNN for its decision to air a town hall event with former President Trump on Wednesday.

“CNN is a major American cable news outlet whose viewers trust that they are being given accurate reporting of events to the best of the network’s ability. With this trust comes an obligation and commitment to their viewers,” Fanone wrote in an op-ed titled “CNN Is Hosting a Town Hall for a Guy Who Tried to Get Me Killed” that was published Wednesday in Rolling Stone.

“In the past, CNN has recognized the dangers of allowing election deniers a public platform and would not allow them on-air. Under new ‘leadership,’ that policy has been discarded as evidenced by CNN’s decision to allow the chief election denier, former President Donald J. Trump, a prominent time slot in its evening lineup.”

Fanone is a contributor at CNN, which he acknowledged in his piece, and is widely known for the emotional testimony he gave before the select congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection and his regular appearances on the network, usually criticizing Trump and Republicans who support him.

“In the nearly two years that I have worked for this network, I have had countless conversations with its employees, producers, hosts, journalists, cameramen, etc. They all have stories about the ‘Trump’ years. When the former president attacked them (many by name), he inspired countless acts of violence, both threatened and overt, from his supporters. Many employees told me they were afraid to wear anything that identified them as CNN employees when out in public,” Fanone wrote. “So why lend your network’s platform to someone like that?”

The decision by CNN to host Wednesday’s event with Trump is significant, given new network President Chris Licht’s effort to rebrand the channel as less partisan than in years past under previous leadership.

Trump himself alluded to this fact Tuesday in a social media post in which he suggested the network was “rightfully desperate to get those fantastic (TRUMP!) ratings once again.”

Fanone argued any justification from CNN’s defenders that it has a journalistic duty to cover Trump, the front runner for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, falls flat.

“I don’t believe for one second that this is about journalistic integrity. It’s about ratings and money,” he wrote. “Sometimes things are exactly as they appear, and this appears to be an attempt by a major media outlet struggling with its ratings to attract disenfranchised viewers.”