The family of Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died a day after being assaulted during the Capitol riot, brutally snubbed Republican leaders on Tuesday as they accepted a congressional gold medal awarded to cops who defended the country on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sicknick, a U.S. Capitol Police officer, was assaulted with pepper spray during the melee and collapsed after returning to his division office. The D.C. medical examiner later ruled he died of a stroke, deeming it a natural cause of death despite acknowledging that “all that transpired played a role in his condition.” Capitol Police listed it as a death in the line of duty.
Several Republican members of Congress have since downplayed the riot, calling rioters “patriots,” painting themselves as the real victims, and voting against a bill to award congressional medals to officers.
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Footage captured Sicknick’s family shaking Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer’s hand on Tuesday before deliberately bypassing the outstretched hands of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
“They have no idea what integrity is,” Sicknick’s brother, Ken Sicknick, later told CBS News. “They can’t stand up for what’s right and wrong. With them, it’s party first.”
He said people like McCarthy and McConnell initially condemned the riot but, under the sway of Donald Trump, had “backstepped” and “danced” around the issue.
He called the actions of Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), who has spewed endless nonsense in defense of rioters, “disgusting.”
“It takes away everything my brother has done. It takes away the heroism my brother showed,” he said.
“They’re just two-faced,” Gladys Sicknick, Brian’s mother, said to CNN. “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.”
“It just hurts,” she added.
Pennsylvania smoothie shop owner Julian Elie Khater, 32, and sandwich entrepreneur George Pierre Tanios, 39, have both pleaded guilty to the assault on Sicknick. Khater faces 78 to 97 months in prison when he’s sentenced this month.
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