Bulwark Takes - Capitol Police Betrayed AGAIN (w. Michael Fanone)

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

Michael Fanone nearly lost his life defending the Capitol on January 6. Now, he’s watching in disbelief as Trump pardons rioters, grants Ashley Babbitt full military honors, and even parades the military through DC like a strongman. Fanone calls it what it is: a betrayal of the oath he swore to defend the Constitution. The Michael Fanone Show

Hey there, everyone. This is JVL from the bulwark here with my buddy, Michael Phanone. And before we get started talking about what's going on with the latest Ashley Babett news, because it's horrifying, hit like and subscribe and follow the channel. It helps us more than you guys can possibly realize. Trust me, I've seen inside the algorithm I know. Michael, yesterday we got word that the Air Force has reconsidered its decision on Ashley Bamett getting full military funeral honors. His request from her family was denied under the Biden administration. What the Air Force said at the time was that due to the circumstances preceding her death, military funeral honors would bring discredit upon the Air Force.

The Trump administration seems to have reversed this. yesterday, the people at Judicial Watch, who, for some reason, are now taking up the cause of Ashley Babbett, put out a letter from the Air Force saying that they have gone and, due to new information that they've gotten, reconsidered their decision, and they're going to give full funeral honors to this woman who was storming the Capitol and got herself shot by trying to break into the chamber. I feel like we're living in an insane. There's our land? Yeah. Yeah. Everything that was said about, you know, the circumstances in which Ashley Babbitt lost her life under the Biden administration is still, you know, that's fact-based, based out of, in reality. Everything that's being said now is, it's insane.

It's further eroding, at least in my mind, the credibility of those who are in leadership positions in our military, that they would allow full military honors to someone who lost their life while committing the act of sedition. someone who was taking up arms against the government and someone who had sworn an oath as a member of the military to defend the Constitution and then lost their lives attacking it. It's an outrage. It should be an outrage to anyone who has served this country in uniform and made the ultimate sacrifice. It should be outrageous to their families. But, you know, again, it shows the, this administration's willingness to align themselves with people that would use violence against our government, against the Constitution.

I don't know about you. You're probably different than I. You know, different people. I'm kind of a bleeding heart on all things. And, you know, Ashley, the killing of Ashley Babbitt is an absolute tragedy. She didn't need to be there. She shouldn't have been there. She was there because a bunch of people who knew better lied to her.

None of those people got held to account. The fact that she was forcing her way into the chamber and wound up getting shot by law enforcement, that's a burden that the cops have to carry with them. I mean, it's just bad all around. And I could see my way to a. sort of like, hey, we all got to move past this, and part of that is, you know, understanding the tragedy. I could see that, right?

But that's not what this is. This is like a switching sides where the government is not just trying to like offer amnesty to people from January 6 and say, hey, you know, we all got to move on and grow past this. This is a, they went, the government inked a $5 million settlement with Ashley Babbitt's family. And at the same time that they are, according her honors, we have the Republicans in Congress who are blocking, just, you know, putting a plaque in the Capitol, recognizing the efforts of the Capitol Police on January 6th, who, by the way, made sure a whole bunch of other people didn't get killed, not just including the elective representatives and their staffs, but the other

protesters. Like the Capitol Police, the crowd management they showed in that day was, like, unbelievable, right? It is everything you could possibly ask for law enforcement in terms of professionalism and bravery. And it's like the government has switched sides against them. That's what that's what drives me crazy here. It's not it's not just like, hey, we're going to, you know, we're going to look the other way for this nice lady. It's a, we're on the side of sedition. I agree with you. And listen, like for me, January 6th is a very personal experience because I was there and I almost died at the hands of these, you know, brainwashed, violent, maga, you know, whatever you want to call them. And I'm not a heartless person in that I can't recognize the fact that a person like Ashley Babbitt was lied to by the former president at that time, Donald Trump, now president, and convinced that what she was doing was right. That being said, you know, Ashley Babbitt was an adult and she is responsible for her actions

and her actions were not just wrong, but they were really wrong. And she should not be afforded these honors that, you know, should be reserved for people who have upheld their oath to the Constitution and who not only served in a way that would afford them that honor, but continued to live their lives in accordance with the oath that they took to the Constitution, which she clearly did not do. That being said, I mean, everything that this administration has done since January 20th, beginning with the presidential pardons for everyone who participated in that dark stain on our history that was January 6th, you know, has shown. shown, again, that their willingness to align themselves with violent extremists and really

flip the script in that I was the enemy. You know, I am guilty in their minds of treason for doing my job that day. And that those that stormed the Capitol, they're the heroes in that story. Yeah, it's a, it is amazing to me that at the same time the Trump administration does things like pardon all 1,500 of the people who were charged and convicted of attacking, and including violent attacks on January 6th. They also are attempting to, you know, like lower felony prosecutions against, like, a dude who throws a sandwich and stuff like that, right? And they've failed these.

It's, again, it's this weird, like, hold on, what's going on here. I guess one of my questions for you is put aside what should be. Like, in the world of like law enforcement in military communities, are any of them, like, are people going to look at this and say, man, that's messed up. This isn't how it's supposed to be. Or like, does this just not register? Like, do they do the people in law enforcement, the military communities, do you think,

look at National Guard being sent into, to do trash pickup and Washington and used his props and think, this is messed up? Or are they like, yeah, no, no, it's cool. Like, what? I mean, it's a mixed bag. I was actually out in D.C. yesterday. I talked to a national guards members, and they were just super excited to be out and about in uniform. But, you know, these guys are like 19, 20 years old. And they don't get, like, they're not, they don't understand the implication of the moment. They don't understand the of the moment. They don't understand the resentment of the community. They see it as, you know, at face value, which is like, oh, we're here to clean up Washington, D.C. contrasts that with like

some of my friends that are older, wiser, combat veterans who are like, this is disgusting. It's disgusting that you're taking, you know, service members, regardless of it, you know, National Guard members that are there, you know, supposed to be there for catastrophic events to help their community or potentially be, you know, brought up into active duty service and sent overseas like so many have. And they're out there doing gardening and trash pickup. There are some that recognize the, you know, the insanity of it. And the same thing in the law enforcement community. I mean, unfortunately, you know, I didn't always have this enlightened viewpoint that I have now. when I was a cop, I was deeply immersed in the law enforcement echo chamber.

And so I only looked at things from the perspective of a police officer. And I think many police officers that are currently serving under this federal takeover see it in the same way that I probably would have as a police officer, which is they have had an adversarial relationship with both the community, and the city council, and they see this takeover as, you know, finally we get, you know, we're in charge now. And without recognizing the fact that how dangerous that is and how destructive it is to the relationship between their agency, which they represent,

and the community that they're charged with keeping safe. and how that is going to resonate for years and years and years to come. And I tell these guys all the time, like, I was there, you know, in 2020. And, and I, you know, I endured the summer of love, the Black Lives Matter protests and the violence between law enforcement and, you know, and protesters. And I told, you know, everybody said, oh, like, everyone hates us. Everyone hates us. And I tell them now, like, you think everybody hated you then.

Like everyone really hates you now because they see how quickly you were co-opted into this, you know, authoritarian takeover and how willing to, willing you were to participate in it without any pushback whatsoever. And that, you know, it's a hard, it's a hard thing to get across to police officers today. It's a hard thing to get across to my former colleagues in D.C. that listen, like, yeah, Yes, crime is going down because you have cops that are out there all over the place, but at what cost? And flip the script because inevitably the pendulum will swing in the other direction. How would you feel if a Democrat came in and said, I don't like the way that your community police officers are handling crime in your neighborhoods.

And so we are going to dramatically change the way that they do things. things, and I'm going to take over the police department. I wasn't elected, you know, in your community. I don't represent your values, but I'm going to decide how things are done. It's anti-American and, I mean, unfortunate, you know, but that's what's, I mean, that's what's going on in Washington, D.C. Yeah, you know, that point you made about the young guys and the guard is so good, because if you're 19 years old right now, Trump is all you've ever known, right? I mean, we've been living in the Trump age since you were 10. You just view all this stuff

as like not as an apparition, but that just is like, well, that's the America you know. And I, right before we came on something Cross the Wires, New York Magazine's reporting that Trump was not happy with the Army's military parade that he

thought it was not up to what he had expected to be. So he's going to have the Navy do a military parade for him in D.C. next. And I just, you know, I think about the reaction we had to the first military parade, the idea like, hey, all of a sudden this looks like Red Square in 1985, you know, with, and, you know, like, by the time the next one comes around, people are just going to be like, oh, I mean, that's just what we are in America.

We're a country that, like, puts the, the dear leader on a reviewing stand and has the military march by him for his amusement. And, you know, it's not out of the ordinary. That's just a Tuesday. That's the point, but it does like, I like to say that absolutely nothing shocks me anymore coming from a 20-year career in law enforcement and then having the experiences that I've had, you know, as a witness to January 6th, someone who lived through it and then testified about it and seeing the nation's reaction to that. But this is, you know, the nation's willingness to allow this to become normal is, is really. striking to me. People's willingness to just, you know, I was out in Union Station yesterday, just kind of observing. And, you know, you've got armored vehicles and people commuting every day

and just kind of walking by it oblivious as if it was, you know, this is how it's been all along. And that to me is a scary thing. Yeah. Michael, thanks for being with us. Guys, follow the channel. we're going to keep following this rocket sled to hell. Good luck, America.