Michael Fanone
Role at the time: Former Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police officer injured defending the Capitol on January 6
Condemned
Response to this claim
Collins’s answer at the Savannah event amounted to support for taxpayer-funded payouts to violent January 6 participants.
“Mike Collins is a liar. The question was crystal clear. His response was automatic. And you know why? Because that’s what he truly believes.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)A Jan. 6 exchange gives Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff a new line of attack on challenger Mike CollinsParagraphs quoting Ossoff's interview and Michael Fanone's response to the Collins campaign's clarification
Why we used this label
The reference point is whether Collins's answer in Savannah amounted to support for taxpayer-funded compensation for January 6 defendants. Fanone says the answer showed exactly that and calls Collins a liar for walking it back, which criticizes the conduct under scrutiny. We used Condemned. Challenged the characterization loses because Fanone accepts the critical reading and attacks Collins for it. The quote is from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's report.