'Is This America?': Capitol Officer Recounts Jan. 6 Riot, Gasping for Air Amid Chaos
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn is publicly sharing what he experienced as a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Dunn recalled how he would look at the Capitol with a sense of awe, and what he saw during the riot, “This time you look up, it’s just a cloud of smoke, fire extinguishers have been going off.”
“The floors are covered in white dust, water bottles, broken flagpoles, mask, empty canisters of pepper spray, helmets, Trump flags, everything in the rotunda, just laying there on the floor,” he added.
Dunn said he told his colleagues after the violence, “‘I got called a [N-word] a couple dozen times today protecting this building.'”
“Is this America? They beat police officers with Blue Lives Matter flags. They fought us. They had Confederate flags in the U.S. Capitol,” he added
He also said he found himself gasping for air because of the pepper spray.
"It wasn't just a mob or a bunch of thugs, they were terrorists."
One of the Capitol Police officers who stood their ground during the January 6th insurrection speaks out for the first time, exclusively with @PierreTABC: https://t.co/Y7J7I6SQF8 pic.twitter.com/rjnBDbHIVb
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 22, 2021
Dunn said those who stormed the Capitol are terrorists, “They tried to disrupt this country’s democracy that was their goal…And you know what? Y’all failed because later that night, they went on, and they certified the election.”
While questions are swirling around how the Capitol Police were not better prepared for violence, Dunn said, “[I’ll] wait for the investigation to be completed officially and not draw conclusions about something of this magnitude — I’ll just leave it at that.”
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