Fact Check: Capitol Cop at Jan. 6 Hearing Lies About Death of Officer Brian Sicknick
So it begins.
On Tuesday morning, a Capitol Police officer made a blatantly untrue claim during the first day of hearings before the House select committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
“I’d like to take a moment of my time,” officer Harry Dunn intoned as he began his testimony to the committee, “to ask for a moment of silence for my fallen colleague Officer Brian Sicknick, who died from injuries he sustained in the line of duty defending the Capitol of our beloved democracy.”
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn calls for a moment of silence “for my fallen colleague, officer Brian Sicknick, who died from injuries he sustained in the line of duty defending the Capitol of our beloved democracy” https://t.co/2RJjqvCz6u pic.twitter.com/iTF7sAXsLI
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 27, 2021
Moving.
But not true.
Sicknick died of natural causes related to two strokes on Jan. 7, The Washington Post reported in April, citing the D.C. chief medical examiner. His autopsy showed no evidence of internal or external injuries sustained in the line of duty, contrary to what Dunn said.
In fact, there was only one fatality directly linked to the event: the death of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, shot by a police officer whose identity has been shielded.
Unsurprisingly, the committee saw dramatic videos Tuesday of what the left has claimed show former President Donald Trump’s stormtroopers engaged in insurrection — the worst attack on American soil, we’re told, since the War of 1812, the First Battle of Bull Run, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined.
And Dunn’s statement, along with news coverage and carefully edited videos, contributes to the prevailing narrative regarding the events of Jan. 6.
The motives of the Democratic-controlled House committee seem apparent: preserve the vision of the horrors of what occurred Jan. 6, which allows for continued use of the word “insurrection,” welcomes more release of distorted videos and fits the narrative of Trump supporters as violent white supremacists.
This portrayal makes for an ugly depiction of half the country. Also, it keeps the left’s base riled up ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
With this in mind, Dunn’s moment of silence fits right in.
No one denies that Jan. 6 was a dark day for our country.
Of course, the left wants you to forget that the vast majority of protesters demonstrating at the Capitol did so peacefully. Leftists would also prefer if you didn’t ask questions about potential FBI involvement in the incursion — important questions that Fox News host Tucker Carlson, among others, have posed.
None of this makes any difference to the left or their establishment media allies — only the narrative they want to push does.
That’s why Dunn’s tribute to Sicknick is hollow — because like so many things surrounding what happened Jan. 6, it’s rooted in a lie.
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