Harry Dunn, a retired Capitol Police officer that served during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, came to Tulsa to speak at a Democratic fundraising event.
KWGS’ Zach Boblitt spoke to Dunn about Jan. 6, the current political climate and how Democrats can better appeal to working class voters.
Below is the transcript of the conversation.
Zach Boblitt: So, you have obviously a long law enforcement background. You were guarding the Capitol on Jan. 6, which was a deadly event for law enforcement. An officer died after being assaulted by rioters and four died by suicide in the months following the attack. You said you believe Trump should be held responsible for inciting Jan. 6. So how do you feel now with him back in office?
Harry Dunn: Sure, I think it's, it's very important. One, my word was accountable. The purpose for accountability is it serves two purposes. One, it serves as a deterrent to keep it from happening again, or anything happening again, not just what happened on the sixth, but it also provides some type of closure to the victims of that day. And the victims were the American people.
Now, obviously the officers were on the front lines. They were victims in that type of sense, but the American people, that was an attack on our democracy, an attack on our Capitol, an attempt to overthrow the election, to overturn the election.
So having him back into the White House, I think it sent a message to show you know who we are as a country. I think we deserve better. We can be better, but it showed that Americans didn't reject the idea of having the final say to hold Donald Trump accountable at the ballot box in November, and now he's back in the White House.
Boblitt: And one reason, not a major reason, but one reason, is that police did back Trump for the reelection in 2024 but then obviously he pardoned more than 150 people who assaulted police officers on Jan. 6. Do you think that made any difference in the law enforcement community when it comes to supporting Trump or, you know, conservative members like that in the future?
Dunn: Listen, I think it's very easy to turn Jan. 6 into a political affair. Liberals versus conservatives, Dems versus Repubs.
That wasn't what Jan. 6 was about. Jan. 6 was one of the darkest days in our country. It was an attack on our country, on our democracy, on one of the foundations of our government, and to turn that into a partisan issue, was very and is very problematic.
You just press play. You don't even have to have any sound on, you don't have to have any pundits commentating on it. Everybody saw with their own eyes, and it was despicable. Whether it was right wing, left wing, it didn't matter. It just so happened they were Trump supporters there that day.
As far as the law enforcement side of it, listen, you can support Donald Trump and his policies being conservative. Whether we're talking about tariffs or deportations, the border or whatever. But what happened on Jan. 6 and pardoning people who attacked law enforcement is problematic.
That's why the Fraternal Order of Police, the FOP, came out and condemned, wrote a letter condemning the pardons. Because this isn't about supporting Donald Trump. It's about supporting what's right and what's wrong, and what happened on Jan. 6 was wrong. And him pardoning people who assaulted police officers afterwards was wrong.
Boblitt: You did run for a congressional race in 2024 in Maryland. And, you know, you're doing this event for the Democratic Party. If you think Democrats as having more policies aimed at helping working people, obviously, police are working people. Why do you think so many police officers generally skew Republican? What do you think Democrats need to do to win that vote over?
Dunn: Well, I think it's important, obviously, to show first of all, look at the numbers of the last election that happened, Nov. 5.
Last November, the turnout was very low, compared to other the Donald Trump elections before. Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden, the turnout was very low compared to that. Why? There were a lot of people who were disenfranchised. Donald Trump's not going to really lose many supporters. There are people that are ingrained, that are going to support him no matter what.
What we need to do, when I say we, the Democratic Party, because, you know, it's no secret, I'm a Democrat. What we need to do is target the people who sat this one out. Why did y'all decide, hey, it's better for me to sit home than to not vote at all?
And I think once we reach those people, I think we'll, we'll start to with that and with the failures that this administration that has happened already in the first couple of months has shown us. Hey, you know what? Democrats do have better ideas.
If you look nationwide. The state mandates, or, excuse me, the state ballot initiatives that are going forward a lot, even if it's just protecting a woman's right to choose. All of those are Democratic measures the Democrats want to do. How are they passing on state levels, but we're not turning them into wins on federal levels?
And we need to look at that and examine: Hey, how are we able to turn those into wins on the federal level? And I think starting out is the people who sat this one out, targeting those individuals.
Boblitt: So, to target those individuals that sat out. I think there was a lot of young folks that sat out the election. Do you think events like the Galactic Gala, which you're here to promote as a keynote speaker, it does feature some high dollar donors. Does it deter working class people?
Dunn: I don't think so. Mainly because, I'm here. I'll meet anybody where they are. Like I said, I'm from Maryland and showing all the way up here in Oklahoma. It's my first time here. I was in Kansas a couple weeks ago and just happy to be out there meeting people where they are.
I think one thing we need to do is especially with the young crowd, and I sometimes consider myself young. I remember, I'm 41, now I'm not really young, but when I started at the Capitol police (I) was 24, 25 years old.
I wasn't thinking about how Medicare and Medicaid affected me, affected my family, the price of groceries I was able to afford for myself, because it was just me. Women's choice to choose, I didn't have a daughter. I wasn't really married at the time.
So, it's like, how did these things affect me? Then slowly, as life started to happen, because life happens, taxes go up. You see your parents struggling to be able to how afford health care or afford their prescription drugs. All these things happening. You’re like, wait a minute. This is a problem, and we should care about this.
So, I think explaining to people how it, how it affects you. How it will affect you. How it affects your loved ones, people that you care about. I think that's the important message. It's showing, because people want to know, how does this affect me?
The bottom line is me. How is it going to help me? How does it hurt me? My family? And I think we need to paint the picture. Hey, Donald Trump or the Republican administration is doing X, Y and Z, and this is how it will and can affect you.
And I think that's why the messaging about tariffs has been very well received. The opposition message about it is because people are saying, ‘Wait, we're going to have to pay how much more for X, Y and Z?’ So, I think it's important to talk to people about how things will affect them.
