At the Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony held on Tuesday for police officials who defended against the 6 January attacks on the US Capitol, Republican House members Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy were snubbed by law enforcement leaders and the family of an officer who lost his life.
The mother of Officer Brian Sicknick, who lost his life after a mob of former president Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol building and forced politicians to run for their lives, called the pair “two-faced.”
As senior officers and the fallen officer’s parents warmly greeted the Democratic House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, was seen holding out his hand, waiting in line to shake the officer’s parent’s hands, but was ignored.
The relatives and uniformed officers walked right past the Republican duo, not even looking at them.
Gladys Sicknick, fallen officer Brian Sicknick’s mother, was questioned by CNN about why she didn’t exchange handshakes with McCarthy and McConnell’s at the gold medal ceremony, to which she said, “They’re just two-faced.”
“I’m just tired of them standing there and saying how wonderful the Capitol police is and then they turn around and … go down to Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring and come back and stand here and sit with – it just, it just hurts,” she added.
While McCarthy has paid several visits to former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, McConnell has been critical of Trump in the past and has refused to side with him in the aftermath of the January 6 events, condemning him for his actions.
Ken, Sicknick’s brother, was equally forthright. “They have no idea what integrity is. They can’t stand up for what’s right and wrong,” he said.
McCarthy, who hopes to become speaker when Republicans retake the House majority next month, was widely chastised for making a pilgrimage to Trump’s Florida resort in the days following the insurgency, according to analysts.
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