Prior to next month’s debate with former President Donald Trump, three police officers who protected the U.S. Capitol during the tragic riot on January 6, 2021, will run for president in important swing states, the Biden campaign announced on Tuesday.
In order to warn voters about a second Trump term in office, the campaign announced that former Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who was injured in the attack; U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, a 15-year veteran of the force; and D.C. police officer Danny Hodges, who testified before the House Jan. 6 Committee, would start campaigning in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New Hampshire.
“Donald Trump and his unhinged quest for power and retribution pose an existential threat to our democracy,” Dunn stated in a statement. “He continues to embrace political violence, going as far as saying there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses again and promising to be a dictator on ‘day one’ and pardon Jan. 6 rioters.”
Trump warned that “it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country” if he is not elected, making the remark during a speech in Michigan on the possible loss of American car manufacturing jobs to other nations.
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The Trump team claimed the term was intended to imply a “economic bloodbath,” despite the Biden campaign accusing Trump of asking for “political violence.”
In response to charges of dictatorship made during campaign rallies, Trump declared he would only act as a “dictator on day one” if elected to a second term.
“We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator,” Trump stated.
At a press conference outside the New York courthouse on Tuesday, Dunn was joined by actor Robert DeNiro and former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a brain injury and a heart attack during the Capitol riot. The reporters had gathered for the closing arguments of Trump’s hush money trial.
On January 6, Fanone said that he was “brutally assaulted” by Trump supporters who were “fueled by Trump’s lies and the lies of his surrogates that the 2020 election was stolen.”
Over 1,200 persons have been accused of crimes connected to the Capitol attack on January 6 by the Justice Department. Three years after the incident, the government stated in a review that “more than 1,265 defendants have been charged in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia.”
Referring to Trump as “a clown,” DeNiro made his remarks outside the courthouse on Tuesday. He also provided the voice for a new Biden campaign ad that features pictures from the incident at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and asserts that “Trump wants revenge and he’ll stop at nothing to get it.”
“That’s why I needed to be involved and wanted to be involved in the new Biden-Harris ad, because it shows the violence of Trump and reminds us that he’ll use violence against anyone who stands in the way of his megalomania and greed,” DeNiro stated.
The Trump team gave the assembled media at the courthouse a message of its own on Tuesday.
