Packed WSU crowd gives standing ovation as Fanone recounts Jan. 6 attack

A former Washington, D.C., police officer attacked during the January 6th riot of 2021, kicked off a Defending Democracy tour right here in Wichita this week.

Michael Fanone, the former police officer and now author, received a standing ovation and a warm welcome from a packed crowd at WSU's Hughes Metro Complex. He is best known for sharing his story after he was attacked during the January 6th riot.

Fanone says rioters pulled him into the crowd that day, beating and tazing him multiple times. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and heart attack as a result, and his treatment after was a mixed bag, regarded as a hero to some, and called a liar by others.

Today, he says he's healed from the trauma, but it completely shifted his views on democracy, accountability and civic responsibility, in part because of how things got to this point.

"I'm not going to excuse the behavior of those individuals that stormed the Capitol on January 6, but I think it's also important to recognize that they were manipulated," said Fanone. "Nobody has done more to normalize and to advocate for acts of political violence than this administration, namely Donald J. Trump."

Fanone says President Trump's refusal to accept his loss in the 2020 election and subsequent usage of other members of congress to vote against certifying the election only caused dissension and manipulated his followers into believing lies. He says it also encouraged them to attack the capitol.

FOX Kansas News at 9 reporter Sydney Ferguson has the story in the video posted at the top of this page.