WASHINGTON — Police officers who protected the U.S. Capitol during an hours-long attack by Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, are hitting the road for Kamala Harris in hopes of holding the former president, who faces criminal charges for her efforts to remain in office by lying about the last elections, to regain the White House.
Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, former Capitol Police sergeant Aquilino Gonell and current Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel “Danny” Hodges will show their support for Harris and presumptive vice presidential nominee Tim Walz in the coming days, joining the Democratic campaign for the first time since President Joe Biden dropped out of the ticket less than three weeks ago.
Dunn and Hodges will be in Michigan this week, visiting Grand Rapids, Flint and Detroit, and members of the group will travel to other places soon, including North Carolina and Georgia, the Harris campaign told NBC News. During the trips, the Biden-Walz campaign said, officials would meet with elected officials as well as community leaders to underscore what they call the urgent and immediate threat 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 her time working on Capitol Hill.
“She always talked to us, being a former prosecutor. She liked law enforcement, so she always talked to the Capitol Police officers,” Dunn said.
“Donald Trump, as a criminal, is trying to pardon other criminals,” Dunn said, referring to Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, for which he will be sentenced as early as September 18. a prosecutor, this couldn’t be more like a storybook.”
Hodges, who will be back in service after returning to Washington following his trip to Michigan, told NBC News that as a veteran, it was “really cool” to get a former enlister like Walz on the ticket.
“I’m happy to see all this energy and positivity in the Democratic Party. I think the Harris-Walz ticket is really strong,” Hodges said. “The stakes are incredibly high in this election, and Donald Trump is still an enemy of democracy and, indeed, of the United States, and our best chance of defeating him is to vote 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. against Trump. He said he was grateful for Biden’s work and happy to see that the transition between Biden and Harris went so smoothly.
“I am incredibly grateful for everything Biden has done for this country, and I know this was not an easy decision for him to make,” Hodges said. “But it seems to be going well and I sincerely hope we can keep the power going.”
Trump remains clinging to his false claims about the last election, even though many of his own supporters, who face criminal consequences for his actions on January 6, told federal judges that they now feel like “idiots” who were mistaken and manipulated, regretting that they did not have the IQs or critical thinking skills to see through the lies.
Others still believe Trump’s false claims — including a MAGA hat-wearing rioter who shouted “Trump won!” after he was convicted of sticking a stun gun into the neck of former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone—and many others counting on Trump’s election in November to avoid criminal culpability for his actions. Fanone’s mother was also targeted in May after Fanone spoke outside Trump’s trial in New York, referring to the former president as “an authoritarian” with “a fetish for violence.”
Dunn said that on previous trips it was clear that even some local reporters he spoke with didn’t fully understand what happened on Jan. 6.
“Honestly, not everyone knows. We would assume people know, living here, but in Central America, the average American, the regular voter, [it’s about] make them understand that Donald Trump is the biggest threat to our democracy,” Dunn said. “People don’t really understand what happened that day, and being able to tell them as a first-hand witness is refreshing and encouraging that people are willing to be accepting.”
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 received probationary sentences, but more than 500 were sentenced to periods of incarceration ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
