The mayor did not explain the nature of the violations in question, but claimed Silvester was not fired "for the content of his speech," but "his failure to follow clearly laid out and well-established policy."
Fox News anchor Sean Hannity told Silvester during his Thursday appearance on the network that Bellevue officials appeared "afraid that you're about to hire a lawyer and sue their asses off."
"Well, I'd like to think so," Silvester responded. "I'm the latest target of cancel culture, Sean, that's all it is."
"None of my other videos that depicted me in my uniform or that involved body camera footage—none of those mattered, they didn't care about those," he continued. "They knew they existed, but they didn't matter. It wasn't until my LeBron James TikTok surfaced and struck a political nerve that they started to pay attention and complain about it and come up with forms of discipline."