During a new interview for CNN, Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn — who participated in the defense of the Capitol amid the Trump riot in January — shredded lies about what actually happened on that fateful day that have been perpetrated by prominent voices at Fox News and elsewhere. In short, a prominent line from right-wingers has been the claim that what took place at the Capitol has been blown out of proportion, but Dunn noted how Fox in particular hasn’t shown its viewers — at least in the context of nonsense like what Fox host Tucker Carlson has pushed — the true breadth of what unfolded at the Capitol in January. In truth, hundreds of Trump supporters participated in a riot that include savage beatings inflicted on at least 140 law enforcement officers. That’s not tourism.
Discussing Fox’s coverage of the insurrection, Dunn commented as follows:
‘…Spraying us, and fighting us, and hitting us with poles: show that clip. What do you have to say about that?.. It goes against their narrative. It goes against their narrative. And the whole thing about with Tucker Carlson, he had some words about me — have me on your show. I’ll go on. They want to talk about you, not to you… Talk to me, not about me. They didn’t show that because it doesn’t fit their narrative.’
Mark Zaid, a lawyer for Dunn, added that Carlson and Fox “should be ashamed of anti-American, pro-insurrectionist propaganda they continue to promote.” Check out Dunn’s remarks below:
My thanks to Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn for coming on. He says he’s happy to go on Fox to set them straight about what happened on January 6th. “They want to talk about you. Not to you,” Dunn said. pic.twitter.com/1ew13LXBxj
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 10, 2021
Trump himself has been among those downplaying what happened at the Capitol, meaning that Dunn’s remarks serve as a rebuttal to nonsense from the former president as well. In a recent statement, Trump insisted that Americans’ “hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election,” but characterizing what took place on that day as a mere “protest” is utterly ridiculous. Mere “protests” don’t ordinarily involve the ransacking of the nation’s Capitol building as members of Congress, the vice president of the United States, and others flee for their lives while an openly murderous mob swarms the premises where they’d been trying to conduct government business.
Dunn was one of the four local officers who participated in the defense of the Capitol and went on to testify at a public hearing of the House’s riot investigation committee back in July. While there, he shared details of violently racist abuse that non-white officers sustained amid the Trump supporters’ onslaught. As he explained it, ‘another Black officer later told me, he had been confronted by insurrectionists in the Capitol who told him, “Put your gun down, and we’ll show you what kind of n*gger you really are.”‘ During the same hearing, Dunn added that “democracy is bigger than any one person and any one party.”
