During a recent Jack Smith hearing, a retired Green Beret named Robin Franklin faced off against Michael Fenone, a police officer who was present on January 6, and boy, did things get spicy! Now, you might think a retired Army veteran could handle a little bit of debate without losing his marbles. But instead of civility reigniting old war camaraderie, we witnessed a series of interruptions, accusations, and enough colorful language to make a sailor blush. It was like watching a reality TV show, but instead of competing for roses, they were competing for who could deliver the best insult.
Franklin, trying his best to extend an olive branch—or perhaps a hand for a handshake—was met with the fiery wrath of Fenone, who unleashed a torrent of emotions that could only be described as if he’d just found out his sandwich was made with gluten. To hear him speak, you’d think Franklin had insulted his mother while simultaneously setting fire to his family heirlooms. In the midst of all this shouting, Franklin maintained he was just trying to keep his cool and have a rational conversation, which is almost hilarious given the context.
Let’s take a moment to admire the irony here. Franklin, dressed smartly for Capitol Hill with a meticulously pressed suit, tries to make nice while Fenone, donning a t-shirt proclaiming “Fighting Nazis Since Year Whatever,” goes off like a firecracker. It’s hard to have a serious discussion when you look like a headliner at a punk concert rather than a key witness in a congressional hearing. If you’re trying to be taken seriously, maybe swap the tee for a blazer? But I guess that’s one way to show that you’re not afraid to keep it real.
And then there are the threats. Franklin accused Fenone of threatening his family, which sparked a back-and-forth about who could keep their cool versus who was acting “spasmodic” (a term I haven’t heard since my seventh-grade biology class). It’s a wild thought, imagining these two men, once warriors on their own battlefields, now going toe-to-toe like bickering siblings. Maybe they should just settle this over a set of chess, or perhaps a little paintball, because this is getting out of hand!
The real showstopper of the day had to be the underlying questions about conduct. With Fenone claiming constant professionalism and Franklin insisting the contrary, one has to wonder if anyone’s been watching the same show. I mean, if your primary defense is that you’re the one keeping it civil in a room roaring with chaos, you might want to reconsider your life choices. Whether it’s court reports or political commentary, maybe a little less name-calling and a little more listening could work wonders.
At the end of the day, this back-and-forth may have been a microcosm of today’s political tension—a demonstration of how quickly civility can devolve into a circus act. If there’s one lesson we can take from this eye-rolling encounter, it’s that a well-tailored suit doesn’t guarantee a healthy debate, and a t-shirt doesn’t have to mean a total shutdown of reason. Let’s hope these gentlemen—including their hair-trigger tempers—can keep it together long enough to at least finish the hearing before launching into another bout of verbal sparring. Maybe next time they’ll plan an intervention or grab a drink beforehand to work on that whole “being civil” thing. Cheers to hope, right?
