MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart got weepy during a segment featuring a former member of the Capitol Hill Police Department who served during the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Capehart was interviewing former officer Michael Fanone about this book, “Hold the Line,” that details Fanone’s experience on the day of the riot.
“Michael Fanone, I’m going to try to get through this – um, thank you for what you did three years ago today,” Capeheart told Fanone through tears. “Please, tell me your thoughts on this third anniversary.”
“We are still in the midst of the same fight that began on January 6th, 2021, and we have a lot at stake in this country,” Fanone responded. “I think it deserves every American’s attention.”
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Observers on social media mocked Capehart’s apparently over-dramatic performance.
The segment came just one day after the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that defendants illicitly present in the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot can be convicted even if they were passively observing the events inside.
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The ruling stated that trespassers did not need to be acting “disorderly” or “disruptive” to be found guilty of disorderly conduct, because such definitions “are nebulous, but time has given them concrete contours in two ways important here.”
“First, it is well-established that whether conduct qualifies as disorderly depends on the surrounding circumstances,” the court wrote. “Courts consistently observe that ‘whether a given act provokes a breach of the peace depends upon the accompanying circumstances,’ making it ‘essential that the setting be considered.’”
“Second, it is equally clear from caselaw that even passive, quiet and nonviolent conduct can be disorderly,” the ruling continued.
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The court compared trespassers present in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to hikers and audience members in an extended metaphor about singing.
“A lone hiker on a mountaintop can sing at the top of his lungs without disturbing a soul; a patron in a library cannot,” the court wrote. “It is entirely appropriate to clap and cheer when a keynote speaker steps to the podium but to do so once the room has fallen quiet and he has begun to speak would ordinarily be disruptive.”
The FBI continues to investigate and prosecute suspects placed inside the Capitol by security and social media footage.
Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report
