MILWAUKEE – Most Americans will remember where they were when the U.S. Capitol was stormed by right-wing supporters of former President Donald Trump on January 6th, 2021. That reflection is an exceptionally visceral experience for Officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges, who defended the U.S. Capitol that fateful day.
WTMJ’s Steve Scaffidi welcomed Officers Dunn and Hodges on the Political Power Hour on June 13, 2024, to reflect on their experiences, share that perspective and discuss how the insurrection informed their views on the 2024 Presidential Election.
The views they expressed here are their own and do not represent their employer(s).
“I’ve been thinking about [the insurrection] every day since. It’s always been relevant, and it’s never been more relevant [than] now in the election season,” Hodges told WTMJ. “It was an attack on democracy. It was from a sitting President of the United States. He tried to install himself and overturn the will of the people. I don’t see why we should give him that opportunity by voting for him again.
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In the wake of the insurrection, Hodges hoped the GOP would move away from Trump. While it appeared that way for a while, Trump ultimately regained the trust of many skeptical Republicans and is once again their likely nominee for the 2024 Presidential election.
For those who witnessed the insurrection firsthand, it’s not something that’s easy to let go of — especially when considering the former President’s continued support of those facing repercussions for their roles in the U.S. Capitol riots.
Dunn, who ran for Congress in the years since the insurrection, told WTMJ that everything he did on that day came from the perspective of a police officer. He says that everything he’s done since to speak out and spread awareness about the ramifications of that incident stems from his patriotism.
“Let’s be real, Donald Trump has not moved on from January 6th, so as long as their rhetoric is flowing freely about it being a tourist attraction, a normal day — any attempt that they have to whitewash, downplay, diminish, or flat out lie about what we went through, they’re going to meet resistance,” Officer Dunn said.
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“I had a camera mounted on my chest the entire time until it was ripped off, and yet people still call me a liar,” Hodges said. “The guy who beat me in the head with my own baton put his camera in his mouth, his phone in his mouth, while he was gutturally screaming at me, so you can hear everything he says. There’s absolutely an incredible amount of evidence…”
Each of these men is now standing firmly against President Trump’s candidacy in the 2024 Presidential Election. They expressed that while most presidential elections feel important, this one is a ‘once in a generation election,’ and not just because of what happened at the U.S. Capitol.
“We can’t count on the institutions to save us, so to speak, from Donald Trump. It’s going to take all us Americans getting out there and rejecting him at the ballot box,” Dunn said.
You can listen to the complete interview here in your browser, by visiting the Political Power Hour feed on WTMJ.com, or on your podcast platform of choice.
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