Jan. 6 Cop Harry Dunn Praises CNN’s Jake Tapper For Smackdown With Trump DHS Chief Noem

Tommy ChristopherJan 15th, 2026, 10:37 am

Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn praised CNN anchor Jake Tapper for his recent confrontation with Trump DHS Secretary Kristi Noem over the shooting of Renee Good and the violent January 6 rioters.

Dunn was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Citizens Medal for bravery after he was subjected to racist taunts as he defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In a new Substack interview, Dunn singled Tapper out for praise after he called Noem out by drawing a contrast between her treatment of the Good killing and the president’s pardoning of violent rioters.

Dunn indicated that while he has been critical of Tapper in the past, this interview was an example of how journalists should confront “blatant lies”:

HARRY DUNN: Like, platforming people and giving them the space to say their point, and just– that is problematic.

But when you go up there and you let somebody basically say all the dumb sh*t out their mouth, and then you tell them why you’re 100% wrong, that’s good. I like action.

TOMMY CHRISTOPHER: That’s what I think I feel like you’re modeling good behavior–.

HARRY DUNN: But, but the problem is when you just get on there and let them spew lies and not challenge them over them, you know.

I’ve been very critical of Jake Tapper recently, but I will give him credit when on Sunday, when he had Kristi Noem on there.

And he said, wait, you said you can’t attack law enforcement, but wait, what about on January 6th? What about that?

So I mean, I’m glad that he pushed. He brought that up, you know?

So I mean there are not a lot of times where a lot of people will, they let lies go unchecked. You cannot do that.

TOMMY CHRISTOPHER: Yeah, I think that’s that that is one of the, you know, uh, sometimes you can’t keep up with Trump.

HARRY DUNN: And this ain’t just simple fact check. Something like, oh, the U.S. Had 3% growth when it was actually like 2.7 or whatever the number is.

These are just obviously blatant lies. “January 6th was peaceful!”.

Absolutely not! Like, you don’t need to be a scholar to know.