Officer Asks McCarthy to Denounce GOP Remarks on Capitol Riot 

WASHINGTON - A police officer who was injured in the January 6 Capitol insurrection confronted House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy in a meeting on Friday, asking him to publicly denounce statements by GOP members who have voted against honoring police and have downplayed the violence of the attack.

Officer Michael Fanone has said for weeks that he wanted to meet with McCarthy, who has opposed the formation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack and has remained loyal to former President Donald Trump. It was a violent mob of Trump's supporters that laid siege to the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory after Trump told them to "fight like hell" to overturn his defeat. Fanone said after the meeting that he had asked McCarthy to denounce 21 House Republicans who recently voted against giving police officers a congressional medal of honor for defending the Capitol, and also Georgia Representative Andrew Clyde, who compared video of the rioters to a "tourist visit." He said McCarthy told him he would "address it in a personal level with some of those members," a response he said wasn't satisfactory. McCarthy's office did not respond to a request for comment on the meeting.