Tapper Grills Fraternal Order of Police President: Why Aren’t You Publicly Defending the Capitol Officers ‘Being Smeared’?

Josh FeldmanJul 28th, 2021, 5:13 pm
 

CNN’s Jake Tapper spoke with Fraternal Order of Police national president Patrick Yoes on Wednesday and questioned him about not being more publicly supportive of the Capitol Police officers who have spoken out about the January 6th riots.

Officer Michael Fanone said on CNN Wednesday morning that “after January 6th, neither myself nor any other officer that I spoke to that experienced that day never had any outreach from the National Fraternal Order of Police — zero.”

He said it wasn’t until six months later when he spoke with Yoes, expressing that he “wasn’t particularly impressed with that conversation.”

Yoes told Tapper Wednesday afternoon the officers who “bravely fought off the rioters and defended the Capitol” have “been through hell” and “deserve our undying gratitude.”

Tapper asked if the FOP has a position on an investigation into the events of January 6th.

Yoes said “our position is well-documented” and told Tapper, “We’ve always said since January 6th that those that are responsible and those who have violated the law should be held accountable. And our position on that has not changed.”

Tapper went on to ask Yoes about what Fanone has alleged, including that lack of outreach.

“Fanone says that he heard nothing from FOP in the days, the weeks, the months since the insurrection until he recently reached out to you. Why not?” Tapper asked. “Your union is very aggressive when it comes to backing the men and women in blue.”

“The D.C. Metro labor committee, which is the FOP, has been engaged in working with Officer Fanone. And I listen to his comments and I just feel for him,” Yoes said. “A job of law enforcement is very difficult. And the challenges that law enforcement officers deal with, the emotional strain, it takes a toll on all of us.”

Tapper then brought up the FOP’s 2020 endorsement of Donald Trump as he asked this question:

Do you feel, because FOP endorsed Donald Trump and because so many members of FOP are Trump supporters, do you feel as though you can’t — as publicly, as vocally as you want to, as you otherwise would — express support for the officers who defended the Capitol that day for fear of running afoul of Trump supporter FOP members who actually side with the insurrectionists as opposed to the police officers who protected the Capitol that day?

Yoes objected to the framing of the question, defended the FOP’s Trump endorsement, and said they’ve recently worked with members of Congress “on both sides of the aisle” on police reform.

Tapper went back to how “MAGA media, MAGA politicians are smearing police officers who are members of your union.”

“I just don’t see FOP out there decrying it in a way I think you would be if it was, for instance, somebody on MSNBC attacking a police officer,” he said. “Do you feel that you cannot be as supportive of the Capitol Police officers, of the Metropolitan Police Department officers, as you would want to be because Trump supporters make up most of your union?”

Yoes again objected to the question and said, “I don’t think there’s been a week that has gone by since January 6th that we have not been engaged in meaningful discussion and actions on behalf of that incident on that day. So to suggest that somehow we’re ignoring it is not true.”

“I’m talking about public expressions of support for them,” Tapper countered. “You seemed to stop being as vocal, FOP, on social media and in your press releases after January. And like I said, these officers are being smeared. And FOP regularly defends police officers. That’s your job. It’s an important job. I don’t see you doing it publicly.”

You can watch above, via CNN.

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Josh Feldman - Senior Editor

Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac