LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Sgt. Aquilino Gonell still remembers the American flag.
The flag that was still attached to a pole that a Jan. 6 rioter was trying to use to beat him.
Gonell was one of scores of Capitol Police officers who defended the building in 2021, when rioters descended to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
Gonell, a naturalized citizen born in the Dominican Republic, remembers being repeatedly assaulted on that harrowing day, punched, kicked, hit with his own baton, crushed under a police shield and nearly dragged into a mob of rioters.
His injuries cost him his job with the Capitol Police, a job he says he loved. But hearing members of Congress and former President Donald Trump dismiss what happened that day is like getting punched all over again, he says.
"What is more injurious, you may ask, is when you do the right thing and still there are people who ... say that nothing happened," he said. "Let me ask you this: Nothing happened to who? Your member of Congress, who got to evacuate the Capitol with the time and effort that we did? Or us, the police officers who suffered severe injuries?
"Donald Trump calls those people who injured myself and many others in the Capitol hostages, patriots and political prisoners, as if they were the ones in charge of protecting the Capitol, not us, the police officers."
Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer who served on Jan. 6, said Trump hasn't acknowledged the death of Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after suffering two strokes the day after the riots. And Trump's supporters call the officers who defended the Capitol traitors.
That makes for a clear choice for president, Dunn said. He and Gonell will be visiting battleground states to spread that message in advance of Election Day in November, starting with Wednesday's news conferences in Las Vegas and Reno.
"One of the differences between us and some of the other officers is that our fight didn't just end on Jan. 6," Dunn said. "January 6, we did our job as police officers. January 7 until today, we're doing this because we love this country. We're Americans. We believe in democracy. We believe in decency. We believe in the Constitution. We believe in Joe Biden."
Gonell and Dunn both said they were apolitical during their service as Capitol Police officers — defending Republicans and Democrats equally — but they're getting comfortable with politics now that they've left the department. Dunn ran unsuccessfully for Congress from Maryland this year, losing a Democratic primary.
But standing before a wall full of Biden-Harris and Stop Trump signs on Wednesday, both men told reporters that defeating Trump was essential. That's a sentiment shared by Rep. Dina Titus, who was ordered to shelter in place in her office during the Jan. 6 riot.
"You see these people standing behind me," Titus said, referring to Dunn and Gonell. "Usually, they're standing in front of me, standing there to protect me from whatever onslaught is coming."
Titus credited the officers with clearing the Capitol so she and other members could finish the vote count and certify the election. She denounced people who downplay the courage required to stand up against rioters.
"So to have somebody just denigrate that, to try to destroy that, to ridicule that, is just beyond anything I would have ever taught in a political science class all those years at UNLV," said Titus, a former professor. "It's just unbelievable."
In response to the news conference, the Republican National Committee issued a statement saying Democrats were trying to distract from Biden's record.
"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have nothing to run on and it shows — in poll after poll, they are losing in Nevada," reads the statement by RNC spokeswoman Rachel Lee. "The Biden camp continues to run from the issues voters care about, like soaring prices, a wide-open border, and rampant crime, but Nevadans will not be distracted from the kitchen table issues that will drive them to the polls this November."
Indeed, the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Trump leading Biden in Nevada, 48% to 42.6%. And polls surveyed by fivethirtyeight.com show Trump leading Biden in Nevada as well.
But for Dunn, the issue is democracy.
"Democracy is facing a 9-1-1 emergency right now and we need some first responders and we got some standing right here that are stumping for Joe Biden right now when he's the right person for the job and we have to do whatever it takes to elect him," Dunn said.
