One of the officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, expressed his concern about the recent Republican talking point that those arrested and convicted, or those who pleaded guilty, are hostages.
Speaking to MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan on the final night of his Sunday show, Sgt. Aquilino Gonell said that making things up like the "hostages" comment is crazy, given they are people who have been convicted in court.
He referenced Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who parroted Donald Trump's talking points to "Meet the Press" on Sunday, claiming those in prison were "hostages." Even former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) called her "disgraceful."
"When you hear Elise Stefanik, a member of the House GOP leadership, talking about people that attacked you and former colleagues as hostages, what are you and the former colleagues who are still in the force, still protecting people like Stefanik? You guys are protecting people who are protecting the people that attacked you!" Hasan said.
Gonell called it "insane."
"But as I described it in my book, 'American Shield,' on a couple of chapters — it is a betrayal for the sacrifices on January 6th. It's a sacrifice on the lives and every effort that we made on Jan. 6th to prevent them from getting hurt. The only reason they escaped any harm, without any of those elected officials getting hurt, is because of the actions of myself and my colleagues on Jan. 6th," said Sgt. Gonell.
That's when he hit the GOP in the rhetorical gut.
"If they really think that those people are hostages, or were political prisoners, then what are we, the police officers?" he asked. "Who are we to them? This is coming from the party of 'law and order' in quotation marks. I cannot believe those policies anymore because they do not believe that."
He went on to recall Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) repeating only a few weeks ago that they were the party of "law and order."
"They are the law, transparency, accountability, and yet in the same sentence, the same breath of the line that he said, let's blur out the faces of the peaceful — or innocent individuals so that the Department of Justice can not identify and prosecute these rioters. It is insane the way they are trying to brush this away. What happened?"
See his full comments in the video below or at the link here.
'If they are hostages then what are we — the police?' Capitol cop asks Elise Stefanik youtu.be
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