‘Got To Be Kidding Me!’ Capitol Police Officer Rips GOP Gaslighting On Insurrection

Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who fought off Donald Trump-supporting rioters during the Jan. 6 insurrection, expressed astonishment Friday at Republican attempts to rewrite the history of the violence.

“They were there with a purpose to hurt people. They had bad intentions,” Dunn told CNN’s “New Day” of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer, and more than 140 officers were injured.

“It just hurts to believe that people can think that it was a normal day, it was a tour,” Dunn said, citing some of the GOP truth-altering. “It’s hurtful that they can say things like that when we had officers give their life to make sure that they were safe.”

Though the riot was well documented by video and eyewitness accounts, GOP lawmakers on Wednesday tried to present it as something far different than what it was. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) said during a House Oversight Committee hearing that it looked like “a normal tour visit.” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz) claimed it was police “harassing peaceful patriots.”

Dunn said he and his law enforcement colleagues were only just starting to recover from the events in January “and then that hearing Wednesday comes out and you’re like, you got to be kidding me.”

“It’s hard to believe that people still deny what really happened,” said Dunn, who has previously described the racist abuse he received from rioters.

“If the video evidence doesn’t show it, I don’t know how you can convince people,” he said, calling it “an all-out attack.” “How do you look at that tape and see anything else than an assault? I don’t get it. I don’t understand.”

Dunn described the rejection of what happened — by elected members of Congress and other people — as “insulting” and “a slap in the face.”

“It’s kind of like we’re being dismissed as our opinions and what we experienced didn’t matter.”

Watch the interview here: