By David W. Marshall
It is no surprise that police officers who protected the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks are now hitting the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell and current Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel “Danny” Hodges testified before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack and are now joining the Democratic campaign with stops in Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia. According to the Harris-Walz campaign, the officers are meeting with elected officials and community leaders to highlight the urgent and immediate threat that former President Donald Trump poses to democracy.
Dunn said that on prior trips, it was clear that even some local reporters he spoke with didn’t fully understand what happened on Jan. 6. “Honestly, everybody doesn’t know. We assume that people know, living here, but in middle America, the average American, the regular voter, [it’s about] getting them to understand that Donald Trump is a biggest threat to our democracy,” Dunn said. “People really don’t understand what happened on that day, and to be able to tell them as a first-hand witness, it’s kind of refreshing and it’s encouraging that people are willing to be receptive.” For their actions on that historic day, Dunn and each member of the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department are American heroes because Jan. 6 could have been much worse. They were public servants who made personal and professional sacrifices to ensure no lawmakers were harmed.
Unfortunately, Dunn’s comments show that despite credible news reporting and the public congressional over- sight hearings and available facts, too many people remain misinformed regarding supporters of then-President Donald Trump, who attacked the U.S. Capitol. Despite the contrast of having a prosecutor versus a felon, millions of people have decided to support the felon as the next U.S. president. This begs the question: How can the Republican Party, with any credibility, claim to be the party of “law and order” while a convicted felon awaits sentencing as its party’s nominee? Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that members of the Republican Party have told her they want to see Donald Trump and J.D. Vance defeated in the 2024 presidential election. “The Republican Party has been hijacked, and it’s now a cult, and they should take it back because the republic needs a strong Republican Party,” Pelosi said in a recent interview with MSNBC.
According to Pelosi, some Republicans have approached her, saying, “You have to beat them in the general because we can’t beat them in the primary. And then we will come back to our debate on the issues.” There are Republicans who privately are separate from the MAGA extremism and genuinely want to clean house and start over with a new Republican Party. To do that, they need to become Harris Republicans when they vote in November.
One cannot say Republicans didn’t have their chance to rid themselves of Trump during his second presidential impeachment. Only seven Republican senators publicly joined the Democrats in voting to convict Trump, falling 10 votes shy of the two-thirds majority required by the Constitution. If Trump loses, will there be a peaceful transfer of power? Republicans cannot have it both ways. On the one hand, they want him to lose, but on the other hand, this is not the time to be partisan by remaining silent when warning signs show the potential of a fair election not being properly certified. A new rule in Georgia could allow some local election boards to re- fuse to certify results, raising concerns about the November election in a critical swing state. This should be a red flag for Republicans who are looking to the results of the general election to solve their “Trump” problem. Joining the Harris bandwagon is fine for the sake of saving the future of democracy, but will Republicans for Harris go as far as to join Democrats in speaking out in real-time when democracy is threatened before our eyes?
In a word, the Harris-Walz campaign is inspiring. She has not only excited her Democratic base but also encouraged and uplifted those Republicans who felt democracy was slipping away in the same manner as their Republican Party.
Timing is everything. The 2020 version of Joe Biden was able to beat Donald Trump, but the same could not be said about the 2020 version of Kamala Harris. Polls in 2024 show the reverse is true. With the enthusiasm and excitement surrounding the Democratic ticket, people are sensing this as the perfect opportunity not only to defeat Trump in the presidential election but also to start the dismantling of any long-lasting effects from the MAGA movement. Trump, who may have underestimated a Harris candidacy, could likely see the same thing. He gives himself away when he tells a crowd of Christian supporters that if they vote for him this November, “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
Many Republicans may truly be persuaded to vote for Harris in 2024, but they were uninformed and seemingly did not understand what happened on Jan. 6. Do they fully understand what just happened in Georgia? If Republicans want Harris to win, they cannot remain blind to the tricks Trump plays.
Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and author of the book “God Bless Our Divided America.”
