Jan. 6 police officer shocks CNN host when he compares Trump to Osama bin Laden: 'Donald Trump is a terrorist'

Former police officer Michael Fanone celebrated the newest indictment against former President Donald Trump by comparing the event to the U.S. military killing Osama bin Laden.

Fanone — a former Washington, D.C., police officer who was injured in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol and who now works as a CNN analyst — expressed joy that Trump was indicted for alleged conspiracies related to the 2020 presidential election.

"When I first learned about the indictment, I had a long conversation with a friend of mine, Ryan Reilly, and I told him how proud I felt to be an American at that moment, much in the way that I did when I learned that our military had killed Osama bin Laden," Fanone said on CNN late Tuesday. "I just felt incredibly proud."

The comment appeared to catch CNN host Laura Coates off guard.

"These two seem comparable to you?" she pushed back.

When Fanone tried to dodge the question, Coates interrupted him and forced him to respond.

"I believe they're comparable," he said. "Osama bin Laden was a terrorist who committed a horrific act against American people and against our republic. And I believe that Donald Trump is a terrorist who committed horrific acts against the American people."

The statement clearly made Coates uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, she did not ask Fanone to clarify the "horrific acts" that he alleged Trump has committed, but the content of her follow up question — asking Fanone whether he believes his rhetoric may help "cloud people's view of this indictment as a fair process" — suggested she thought the statement was extreme.

"You can imagine that is a very eyebrow-raising statement, to say the least, the notion of Osama bin Laden in comparison to Donald Trump," she said.

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