Former Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone reacted positively to an advertisement in the Arizona gubernatorial race centered around the mother of deceased Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, adding that GOP candidate Kari Lake is “a piece of shit.”
The ad, produced by the Republican Accountability Project, shows Gladys Sicknick calling Lake “very dangerous for our country,” in part because she “continues to spread the ‘Big Lie.’”
Lake, who even complained about the voting system in her own primary before she won, has supported false claims about the 2020 election. She is endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
“We’re going to have more violence because people — they believe whatever she says,” Sicknick continued. “My son died because of people like Kari Lake.”
Fanone, who was beaten by Trump supporters and suffered a heart attack, praised the ad.
“I’ve gotten to know Mrs. Sicknick pretty well, and I thought that was a powerful ad,” he told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday. “I think she’s out there trying to do what we’re all trying to do here, which is bring accountability for Jan. 6. And I also support the fact that Kari Lake is a piece of shit. So I’m glad she did that ad.”
Fanone, having joined other officers in testifying publicly before the Jan. 6 House Committee last year, has been criticized by one of Lake’s most listened to cable news supporters. Tucker Carlson, who has minimized the severity of the Jan. 6 insurrection and gushed over some of its participants, once laughed off Fanone’s description of his PTSD.
Fanone said in September that during the trial of Kyle Young, one of his attackers, Young’s mother and others nearby called him a “piece of shit” — perhaps influenced by commentary like Carlson’s.