Jan. 6 officers hit the road for Harris, hoping to make Trump lose another election

WASHINGTON — Police officers who protected the U.S. Capitol during an hours-long onslaught by Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, are hitting the road for Kamala Harris in hopes of keeping the former president, who is facing criminal charges for his efforts to stay in office by lying about the last election, from winning back the White House. Aquilino Gonell, and current Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel “Danny” Hodges will be showing their support for Harris and presumptive vice presidential nominee Tim Walz in the coming days, joining up with the Democratic campaign for the first time since President Joe Biden dropped off the top of the ticket less than three weeks ago. Dunn and Hodges will be in Michigan this week, visiting Grand Rapids, Flint and Detroit, and members of the group will travel elsewhere soon, including to North Carolina and Georgia, the Harris campaign told NBC News. During the trips, the Harris-Walz campaign said, the officers would meet with elected officials as well as community leaders to underscore what they call the urgent and immediate threat that Trump poses to democracy. Susan Walsh / AP file Dunn told NBC News that his message won’t change since Biden dropped out, but that he’s excited to be campaigning for Harris, who Dunn knows from his time on the job at the Capitol. She liked law enforcement, so she would always talk to the Capitol Police officers,” Dunn said. “Donald Trump, as a felon himself, is looking to pardon other felons,” Dunn said, referring to Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, for which he’ll be sentenced as soon as Sept. 18. Hodges, who will be back on duty after he returns to Washington after his Michigan trip, told NBC News that as a veteran was “really cool” to get a fellow former enlisted man like Walz on the ticket. “The stakes are incredibly high in this election, and Donald Trump is still an enemy to democracy and really to the United States, and our best chance for defeating him is voting for Harris and Walz.” Hodges, who was brutally assaulted inside the lower west tunnel of the Capitol complex on Jan. 6, called Harris and Walz “powerful forces for good” in the country, saying they would be the right people to vote for even if they weren’t up against Trump. Trump continues to cling to his false claims about the last election even as many of his own supporters who are facing criminal consequences for their actions on Jan. 6 have told federal judges they now feel like “idiots” who were duped and manipulated, regretting that they lacked the IQs or critical thinking skills to see through the lies. Fanone’s mother, too, was targeted in May after Fanone spoke outside Trump’s New York trial, referring to the former president as “an authoritarian” with “a violence fetish.” Dunn said that on prior trips, it was clear that even some local reporters he spoke with didn’t have a full understanding of what happened on Jan. 6. We would assume that people know, living here, but in middle America, the average American, the regular voter, [it’s about] getting them to understand that Donald Trump is a biggest threat to our democracy,” Dunn said. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/jan-6-officers-hit-road-harris-hoping-make-trump-lose-another-election-rcna165658