By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
On the fifth anniversary of January 6, a date now fixed in the American conscience, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn returned to the moment that altered his life and the nation’s course. Appearing on “Let It Be Known,” Dunn spoke about the unforgettable day that’s shaped by time, pain, and resolve, revisiting what he has called the worst day of his life.
Dunn joined the United States Capitol Police in 2008 and has served as a Private First Class since 2011. His career placed him on duty for presidential inaugurations, joint sessions of Congress, State of the Union addresses, and hundreds of peaceful protests. As a Crisis Intervention Officer on the USCP Crisis Negotiation Team, he was trained for hostage situations, barricades, and mental health emergencies. None of that training, he said, prepared him for January 6, 2021.
“I lived the worst day of my life on national TV,” Dunn said.
Five years later, Dunn said something he had not always been able to say.
“I’ve healed from that trauma,” he said, referring to his personal wounds from that day.
The healing, which he made clear, did not mean forgetting. Dunn said it is possible to recover personally while remaining troubled by what continues to unfold in the country.
“As we look around at the things that are going on,” he said, “it’s hard to be okay with everything. If you’re okay right now, I feel like you’re kind of like a callous soul.”
Dunn said he remains focused on what he can change and where his voice still matters. January 6, he noted, made him known to much of the world, but it did not define the limits of his responsibility.
Accountability, or apparent lack of it, ran through the conversation. Dunn spoke as civil lawsuits continue against President Donald Trump and as Trump has pardoned those convicted for their roles in the attack. Dunn said he was not surprised, adding that Trump had promised those pardons openly.
“I knew it was coming,” Dunn said. “So, I had time to prepare.”
Preparation meant action. Dunn said he worked as a surrogate for former Vice President Kamala Harris during the Harris–Walz campaign, trying to stop Trump’s return to office. When that effort failed, he said the pain was not sudden. It was familiar.
“The wounds were already there,” Dunn said. “I just had time to brace for it.”
Dunn rejected calls to move on from January 6, saying the record remains unsettled.
“History bends toward distortion when accountability is denied,” he said. “A hundred years from now, somebody is going to read about January 6 and read that he was elected again and ask, ‘How could that happen?’”
He said Americans do not need explanation to understand what occurred inside and around the Capitol.
“You don’t need a talking head,” Dunn said. “Just press play. Put it on mute. Watch.”
Dunn recalled how rioters filmed themselves, how juries later watched those same videos in court, and how the attackers felt emboldened. He said they told officers repeatedly that the president had sent them.
“They were telling us, ‘The president said we could,’” Dunn said.
He addressed comparisons often drawn between January 6 and Black Lives Matter protests. Dunn said Black Lives Matter demonstrators came to the Capitol, protested, shouted, and left.
“They didn’t storm the Capitol,” he said. “Every single person went home that night. I can’t say the same thing about January 6.”
Dunn spoke of officers who died and of others who later took their own lives. He said attempts to equate the events ignore those losses.
The conversation turned to the present, with Dunn saying January 6 laid groundwork for what he sees now, from threats against other nations to the erosion of democratic norms. He said Americans were warned in advance.
“He told us what he was going to do,” Dunn said. “And when he did it, people acted surprised.”
The cost, he said, remains deeply personal. Dunn described election night as feeling like a knife through his heart, saying it was difficult to accept that many voters returned to power a man he holds responsible for one of the darkest days in U.S. history.
Dunn said he continues to receive hateful messages and death threats, including in recent weeks. He said he takes precautions, leans on his community, and keeps showing up.
“That means I’m doing something right,” he said.
Dunn also discussed his New York Times bestselling memoir, “Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer’s Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th,” which he said was part of his healing.
“Where does it end?” Dunn said. “The story is still being written. You can add to it, but you can’t take away from it.”
He said he now speaks across the country about resilience, rejecting easy assurances.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be okay,” Dunn said. “But I do know if we don’t fight, if we don’t show up, they’re going to steamroll us.”
He paused, then offered what he could promise.
“If we show up,” Dunn said, “we give ourselves a fighting chance.”