The first day of testimony before the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection featured four police officers who shared in devastating detail the verbal and physical assaults they experienced that day at the U.S. Capitol building.
U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn testified the MAGA crowd hurled vicious, ugly racial slurs when he tried to reason with the mob.
“You hear that, guys, this n–er voted for Joe Biden!” one woman shouted. “Fucking n—er!” the crowd screamed. Dunn said he had never been called the epithet while wearing a Capitol Police uniform. Other officers told him later they too were targets of such taunts.
Officer Dunn: "I told them to just leave the Capitol, and in response they yelled, 'no man, this is our house. President Trump invited us here. We're here to stop the steal.'"
He goes on to detail how crowd yelled racial slurs at him. pic.twitter.com/NYZDPPKg0t
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021
Officer Michael Fanone described his own assault by the violent crowd which led to a heart attack.
Growing emotional during his testimony, he pounded the table saying “the indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!”
Fanone pounds the table as he says, “the indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!”
“Nothing has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day and in doing so betray their oath of office,” he adds pic.twitter.com/LrJOxT0ueh
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021
During his remarks, Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell responded to Donald Trump’s recent characterization of the invasion as a lot of “hugs and kisses.”
Capitol Police Sgt. Gonell on Trump’s comments from Jan. 6:
“If that was hugs and kisses then we should all go to his house and do the same thing to him.”https://t.co/m3F22N8wwV pic.twitter.com/XHoPvfMkKi
— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) July 27, 2021
And Officer Daniel Hodges found himself fighting to keep his own baton as one of the rioters told him, “You will die on your knees.”
DC officer Daniel Hodges: “A man attempted to rip the baton from my hands & we wrestled for control. I retained my weapon. After I pushed him back, he yelled at me, ‘you’re on the wrong team!’…another [shouted], ‘you will die on your knees!'” pic.twitter.com/MxZnFTNYlO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021
You can view the full three and a half hour hearing below.