The decisive election of Donald Trump on Tuesday sent a clear message to Aquilino Gonell and other officers who protected the Capitol from rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.
“It means that the American people have accepted Jan. 6 as something that could be condoned,” the former Capitol Police sergeant said the morning after Trump won his second, nonconsecutive term, handily beating Vice President Kamala Harris. “They have put Donald Trump above the law. … He betrayed us. And the vast majority of the American people think that’s OK.”
Gonell has spent the last four years publicly sharing his experiences, one of a handful of officers to do so. They feel the events — when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and assaulted police in an attempt to stop the certification of election results — have been whitewashed, despite their best attempts to describe the violence. Now they are coming to terms with the reality of another Trump presidency.
