Ex-Capitol Police who clashed with Jan. 6 rioters welcomed by Pennsylvania Democrats at DNC

CHICAGO — Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn spoke to the Pennsylvania delegation at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, two months after some Pennsylvania Republican legislators heckled and booed him in Harrisburg.  

Dunn and former Sgt. Aquilino Gonell were invited as guests to the June 5 session of the Pennsylvania House and greeted by House Speaker Joanna McClinton.

“The crazy thing was it was my presence that made them upset, I didn’t even speak,” Dunn said Wednesday. “I just showed up, and they just walked off the floor in protest.”

He said he was surprised at first, “but then you’re like, all right, y’all walk out, because that’s what y’all do. Y’all walk away. Y’all get an attitude, you pout, but y’all don’t fight. Y’all don’t fight for people,” he said. “They don’t care about other people. Republicans don’t care about anybody but themselves. Democrats care about people.”

Dunn, who made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in Maryland earlier this year, clashed with Jan. 6 rioters as they took over the U.S. Capitol as he helped guard former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office that day. Gonell, an Army veteran, has described being beaten with a flagpole, which he has said required two surgeries. Gonell resigned from the Capitol Police in 2022. 

Both have campaigned for the Biden-Harris ticket this election cycle. 

“Before January 6, I was just a police officer who, through seeing all kinds of demonstrations, anybody that came up to the Capitol to air their grievances with the government, peacefully, peacefully. I had to listen to them,” Dunn said Wednesday. “Just listen to what they were complaining about, what they were upset about. They just wanted to be heard. They just wanted to be seen.”

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) also addressed the Pennsylvania gathering at the DNC on Wednesday, noting the successes Democrats have had with infrastructure in his state and Pennsylvania. 

“I sat there for four years under Donald Trump. We had infrastructure week, we had infrastructure month, we had infrastructure lunch. We just never had an infrastructure bill,” Raskin said. “Joe Biden got elected. We got that bill in the first week in his office, we passed a $1.2 trillion investment in the roads and the purchase and the highways, the ports, the airports, the infrastructure of the country. And I know how important that’s been in Maryland, and I know how important it is to the people of Pennsylvania.”

State Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) described how excitement over the Harris-Walz ticket could translate for down-ballot races, which might help Pennsylvania Democrats flip the upper chamber. 

“It’s energized us at the local level and energized us at the state level, and that’s why we’re going to be successful,” Costa said. Republicans currently hold a 28-22 seat lead in the Senate, but some political analysts consider the chamber potentially flippable. “Because what does it mean when we have a Senate Democratic majority: It gets us to a trifecta.”

That of course, presumes Democrats keep a majority in the state House: They must win two special elections on Sept. 17 — the ninth and 10th such elections of the current session — to retain a one-seat majority when the House reconvenes next month.

John Cole of the Capital-Star staff contributed