Police officers injured on Jan. 6, 2021, harshly criticized former President Donald Trump forlionizing rioters convicted of attacking the Capitol that day.
Appearing at a news conference Monday hosted by President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges questioned Trump’s focus on “law and order” given his vow to pardon people convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol, some of whom assaulted police officers.
“He can’t claim to support law and order and at the same time support those who tried to upend our democracy,” Gonell said at the event, which was held at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington. “He can’t claim to support law and order and stand at attention saluting the American flag while they play a modified national anthem written by a convicted felon who attacked my co-workers. That’s not leadership; that’s betrayal.”
Hodges called Trump’s salute of a song recorded by Jan. 6 convicts “absolutely mind-blowing,” adding that “you can’t claim to be on our side and then promise pardons for violent insurrectionists who assaulted me and my colleagues.”
Over the weekend, Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee, posted a video on social media that contained the image of a hog-tied Biden painted on the tailgate of a pickup truck.
The Biden campaign slammed Trump over the video, saying he had suggested physical harm to the president.
