WASHINGTON — Police officers who protected the U.S. Capitol during an hours-long onslaught by Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, are hitting the road for Kamala Harris in hopes of keeping the former president, who is facing criminal charges for his efforts to stay in office by lying about the last election, from winning back the White House.
Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, former Capitol Police Seargant Aquilino Gonell, and current Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel “Danny” Hodges will be showing their support for Harris and presumptive vice presidential nominee Tim Walz in the coming days, joining up with the Democratic campaign for the first time since President Joe Biden dropped off the top of the ticket less than three weeks ago.
Dunn and Hodges will be in Michigan this week, visiting Grand Rapids, Flint and Detroit, and the members of the group will travel elsewhere soon, including to North Carolina and Georgia, the Harris campaign told NBC News. During the trips, the Biden-Walz campaign said, the officers would meet with elected officials as well as community leaders to underscore what they call the urgent and immediate threat that Trump poses to democracy.
Dunn told NBC News that his message won’t change since Biden dropped out, but that he’s very excited to be campaigning for Harris, who Dunn knows from his time on the job at the Capitol.
“She would always talk to us, her being a former prosecutor. She liked law enforcement, so she would always talk to the Capitol Police officers,” Dunn said.
“Donald Trump, as a felon himself, is looking to pardon other felons,” Dunn said, referring to Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, for which he’ll be sentenced as soon as Sept. 18. “The fact that he’s running again a prosecutor, that just couldn’t be more storybook-ish.”
Hodges, who will be back on duty after he returns to Washington after his Michigan trip, told NBC News that as a veteran was “really cool” to get a fellow former enlisted man like Walz on the ticket.
“I’m glad to see all this energy and positivity in the Democratic Party. I think that the Harris-Walz ticket is really strong,” Hodges said. “The stakes are incredibly high in this election, and Donald Trump is still an enemy to democracy and really to the United States, and our best chance for defeating him is voting for Harris and Walz.”
Hodges, who was brutally assaulted inside the lower west tunnel of the Capitol complex on Jan. 6, called Harris and Walz “powerful forces for good” in the country, saying they would be the right people to vote for even if they weren’t up against Trump. He said he was thankful for Biden’s work and was glad to see that the transition between Biden and Harris was so smooth.
“I’m incredibly grateful for everything Biden has done for this country, and I know that it was not an easy decision for him to make,” Hodges said. “But it seems to be going well, and I sincerely hope that we can keep the energy going.”
Trump continues to cling to his false claims about the last election even as many of his own supporters who are facing criminal consequences for their actions on Jan. 6 have told federal judges they now feel like “idiots” who were duped and manipulated, regretting that they lacked the IQs or critical thinking skills to see through the lies.
Others still believe Trump’s false claims — including a MAGA-hatted rioter who shouted “Trump won!” after he was sentenced for driving a stun gun into the neck of former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone — and plenty more counting on Trump’s election in November to avoid criminal culpability for their actions. Fanone’s mother, too, was targeted in May after Fanone spoke outside of Trump’s New York trial, referring to the former president as “an authoritarian“ with “a violence fetish.”
Dunn said that on prior trips, it was clear that even some local reporters he spoke with didn’t have a full understanding of what happened on Jan. 6.
“Honestly, everybody doesn’t know. We would assume that people know, living here, but in middle America, the average American, the regular voter, [it’s about] getting them to understand that Donald Trump is a biggest threat to our democracy,” Dunn said. “People really don’t understand what happened on that day, and to be able to tell them as a firsthand witness, it’s kind of refreshing and it’s encouraging that people are willing to be receptive.”
More than 1,400 defendants have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and prosecutors have secured more than 1,000 convictions. Hundreds of defendants have received probationary sentences, but more than 500 have been sentenced to periods of incarceration that have ranged from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison.
