Hero Police Officer Nominated for Gold Medal Gets Emotional on CNN Recounting Capitol Riot: ‘Today…Was a Bittersweet Kind of Moment’

One of the Capitol Police officers nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday to recognize his heroism during the January 6th insurrection was briefly overcome with emotion when recounting the day during a CNN interview.

Harry Dunn has previously spoken out bout the violence and racists slurs he experience during the Capitol riot. In appreciation for his actions on that day, which involved hand-to-hand combat to keep the attackers from penetrating into a key area of the building, the House overwhelmingly voted to bestow its highest honor to him and two other officers. (Only 12 staunchly pro-Trump Republicans voted against the resolution, protesting its description of the violent storming of the Capitol as an “insurrection.”) The Senate must sill pass its version of the resolution to officially confirm the award.

To discuss the House’s resolution, Dunn appeared on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon. But not long into his account of that fateful day — where 140 officers were injured and three have since died — the police officer had to stop and gather this thoughts.

“We all saw those symbols of hate displayed in that crowd that day,” Lemon noted to Dunn. “You were there and you were facing them and also as a black man as well. Tell us about the hell that you went through that day.”

“Where do I start?” Dunn said, before breaking down midway through his thought. “First of all, that is not and was not normal. Nobody should be subjected to go through what me and my colleagues went through. We dealt with terrorists who were hell bent on changing the results of an election and…”

At this point, Dunn’s words trailed off and he closed his eyes. “Sorry, I got a little emotional right there,” he said. “Just that that intro kind of man, … whew, took me back there for a minute.”

“I want you to be honest about, let’s be honest about this,” Lemon said as his guest continued to look down. “Why is that Officer Dunn?”

“Um… today, I guess, it was a bittersweet kind of moment. It’s great that we were acknowledged for getting the gold medal, that’s an amazing honor. If I can say so, humbly, it’s well deserved for my co-workers and myself,” Dunn replied, before acknowledging the trauma that still haunts him. “But the circumstances in which we got it did not come without great loss. We lost some colleagues and just thinking about it, it’s fresh now. You have good days and bad days, but just thinkg about it takes you back to that, like you said, hell day. It was tough to live through and also tough to relive and talking about it.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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