Last week, following the attempted carjacking of one of his staffers, Donald Trump deployed federal troops to Washington, D.C., to combat what he called an “out of control” crime wave in the city. The president’s swift response stands in stark contrast with his behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, when officers waited hours for National Guard troops to provide backup as his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Fanone said Trump is using federal agents to create “the optics of an occupying force” and spread “fear.”
Former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone joined Ali Velshi on Saturday and called out the president for his hypocrisy over crime in the nation’s capital. Fanone accused Trump of sitting “idly by for hours while officers like myself were being beaten and almost killed” on Jan. 6.
“Donald Trump didn’t see fit to call in the National Guard then,” Fanone said.
The former officer also took issue with Trump’s claim that crime in Washington is on the rise, despite city data that says otherwise. “There’s no spike in crime that we’re experiencing in Washington, D.C., and even then, what is it exactly that the National Guard will do to quell that?”
Fanone said that while there is value in federal and local forces working together to combat crime, what is unfolding in D.C. isn’t about protecting the city’s residents — it’s about optics. “I worked alongside federal partners as a Metropolitan police officer. There is a place for that. That place is not having roving bands of officers in tactical gear, aimlessly walking around.”
Fanone said Trump is using federal agents to create “the optics of an occupying force” and spread “fear.”
“Citizens don’t want to feel as though they’re occupied. They want to be safe, but they don’t want to feel like they’re being, you know, occupied by an army. And that’s what you have now taking over in D.C., and it’s not an efficient use of those resources,” he added.
Fanone didn’t direct his ire just at Trump, he also accused federal law enforcement agents — particularly ICE — of being complicit in the president’s overreach, calling the agency “Donald Trump’s Police Department.” Fanone said he had a simple message for “everyone in the law enforcement community that’s being co-opted by the Trump administration to do things that are immoral, unethical and, in many cases, unconstitutional: Quit your job.” “There’s a lot of other jobs out there,” Fanone said. “I quit my job at the police department, and I got to tell you, when it comes to law enforcement, the grass is always greener somewhere else.” You can watch Fanone’s full reaction in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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