After a Black police officer and others delivered emotional testimony about the violent Jan. 6 Capitol attack during the opening day of hearings conducted by the House select committee that is investigating the insurrection, Fox News commentators Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham mocked those who delivered the testimony.
Ingraham and Tucker used their July 27 shows to downplay what the officers defending the Capitol experienced on the day of the attack, and the social media backlash to their comments came swiftly.
On “The Ingraham Angle,” Ingraham mocked Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn by awarding him with a “Best Political Performance Awardm” saying, “The award for blatant use of party politics when facts fail, the Angle award goes to Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn.”
Dunn, who defended the Capitol the day of the attack, said on Tuesday that members of the mob told him that they were there to “stop the steal” and that President Joe Biden was not the president as they poured into the building wearing MAGA hats.
When Dunn told the insurrectionists that he voted for Biden and asked if his vote mattered, a woman in a pink MAGA shirt said, “You hear that, guys? This n—er voted for Joe Biden,” Dunn recalled Tuesday.
“Then the crowd joined in, screaming ‘Boo! F—ing n—er!’ No one had ever, ever called me a n—er while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer,” Dunn said, adding that other Black officers had shared with him the racial abuse they suffered during the riot.
In response to Ingraham’s claim that Dunn’s testimony was simply a performance, social media users offered swift criticism.
“Despicable doesn’t begin to describe this,” one user wrote about Ingraham’s award ceremony.
“Deplorable,” said MSNBC analyst David Corn.
Ingraham mocked other officers who testified on Tuesday during her award segment. She awarded Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, an Iraq war veteran who testified he thought he would die during the attack, with a trophy emblazoned with the words “Best Exaggerated Performance.”
During Tuesday night’s episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Washington Metro Police Officer Michael Fanone was mocked by Carlson, who laughed in response to the officer’s testimony that he had “been left with psychological trauma and emotional anxiety,” as a result of the attack.
On Twitter, Carlson’s actions were described as “sociopathic behavior.”
Tucker also downplayed Gonell’s experience after he testified that he “was more afraid to work at the Capitol than my entire deployment to Iraq.” Carlson played a relatively quiet clip from the the day of the riot showing members of the mob moving around the building, saying, “Actually what happened on January 6, according to the video we do have, does not look a lot like Iraq. It’s not Fallujah.”
Extensive footage of the attack has showed the far more violent moments that took place during the riot.
Fanone shared with CNN on Tuesday, that he received an offensive voicemail while giving testimony. In the voicemail, a man tells Fanone, “You’re a punk f-ggot, you’re a lying f-ck! … too bad they didn’t beat the sh-t out of you more. You’re a piece of sh-t!”
Twitter user MapleLeif pointed out that the man appeared to be imitating comments Ingraham had made earlier in the day, writing, “Fox News is inciting this.”
So far, more than 540 people have been charged for their roles in the attack amid what prosecutors have described as “likely the most complex investigation ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.”
