Capitol Police Officers Blast Republicans Who Voted Against Jan. 6 Commission in CNN Interview: ‘We Deserve Justice’
CNN’s Pamela Brown sat down with two Capitol Police officers who were at the Jan. 6 insurrection to “set the record straight.” Brown opened the segment by blasting Republicans who have tried to “rewrite history” by claiming the insurrectionists were “peaceful patriots,” were unarmed, or that it was “akin to a normal Capitol tour.”
Sgt. Aquilino Gonell and Officer Harry Dunn blasted lawmakers for voting against the Jan. 6 commission and called for accountability — not just for the individuals involved in the attack, but for those who helped incite it as well.
Last week, Senate Republicans voted down a bill that would have created a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a move Gonell says meant they were “not fulfilling their oath of office to put the country before the party.”
“We gave them the time to go to safety and they are not appreciating that,” Gonnell told Brown. “We put out our lives while they were running, we held the line… We sacrificed so much for them to not only put everything on the line but they’re not doing what they’re supposed to, they’re not fulfilling their oath of office to put the country before the party.”
He went on to call the twisting or toning down of the events a “betrayal to the officers.”
President Joe Biden will similarly not be creating a presidential commission to investigate the attack, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday, as the administration believes Congress is better positioned to investigate.
Dunn, referencing the late Officer Brian Sicknick‘s mother and partner’s lobbying efforts to push for the commission, described the pair as “such strong women.”
“It took so much courage and strength for them to come down and lobby for justice,” Dunn said. “And honestly, I believe that’s what this is all about — accountability, justice. We weren’t just blue. We weren’t just police officers there. We were victims of an assault, of an attack, and we deserve justice and we deserve to know everybody who was involved. We want them held accountable. Anybody who had any part in it, and not just the people that actually carried out the actions but the people who may have incited it. They need to be held accountable and held responsible. And us police officers, the blue, we deserve that. Just like any other victim in this country.”
While Dunn did not go as far as Sicknick’s mother and partner and say that opponents of the Jan. 6 commission do not support the police, he did argue that “they’re getting their judgment clouded with politics.”
“It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with what is right and what is wrong and your conscience,” Dunn continued, referencing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), one of the few Republicans who supported the commission. He added, “Tell the truth. I don’t understand how anybody can live with themselves being dishonest. You can apologize to people. You can apologize to everybody in this world. You apologize to yourself, knowing that you’re full of crap? How do you live with yourself?”
Brown then pivoted the conversation to discuss former President Donald Trump’s role in inciting the attack.
“The people who have the power to hold him accountable at that time let him go scot-free pretty much,” Gonell said. “They had the chance to ban him, put him away… Now he’s claiming that he might run for president again. If did he this, in four years, five years, from the time he ran for office, imagine what he could do with four more years.”
Watch above, via CNN.
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