Bloody fists, breaking glass and other Jan. 6 memories; Casey event focuses on election stakes

The big guy who fought against a mob raging in the U.S. Capitol and hoping to get its hands on people with names like Pelosi and Pence stood in a small room in Wilkinsburg Sunday and took deep sighs while talking about what he described as one of the worst days of his life.

By the end of that day, Jan. 6, 2021, Harry Dunn’s fists were bloody from his tangles with rioters. Afterward, many elected leaders described Dunn and his colleagues in the U.S. Capitol Police as “heroes.”

In some circles, however, Dunn faced a different reaction. Such was the case in June, when he and his former boss, Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, visited the Pennsylvania House floor in Harrisburg. Some Republicans greeted the two lawmen with boos. “Cowards,” some called out to the officers.

Dunn spoke about his experiences with insurrectionists during a short campaign event for U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in Wilkinsburg on Sunday. The event focused on Democrat Casey’s support for legislation supporting public safety, voting rights, workers rights and women’s reproductive freedom — and compared those positions to ones held by his opponent, Republican Dave McCormick.

But memories of the Jan. 6 insurrection carried the day’s emotional weight. Much of it was expressed by Dunn who, at 6-foot-7, towered over the other speakers. He paused to collect himself a few times during his brief speech. “I’ve read these remarks 20 times, and I still get so upset about it,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, another of the event’s speakers, was in the Capitol on Jan. 6 for the joint session of Congress to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. He recalled hearing the news that rioters had entered the building, and that representatives needed to get their gas masks.

“I could hear the insurrectionists outside the chamber,” he said. “You could hear them bang on the doors of the chamber to get in. You could hear glass breaking. I walked out with a Republican member who had ripped a post out of the floor to use as a club to defend himself. I asked him if he was really that afraid or concerned or worried and he said, ‘I think I just heard shots.’”

The comments always pivoted to politics — it is, after all, an election season, and Casey is seeking a fourth term. McCormick came under fire for his role as a hedge fund manager and was charged by Dunn and Casey for mismanaging police pensions and thus contributing to the resignation of hundreds of police officers.

McCormick puts “profits ahead of police,” Dunn said.

Schiff hammered home a theme that’s long been a part of the Democratic message — that former President and current GOP candidate Donald Trump represents a threat to the way in which the United States has governed itself since the country’s beginning.

“We were very close to losing our democracy” on Jan. 6, he said. “There is no room for the big liars, the election deniers — none, not if we’re to pass on this cherished legacy that we got from our founders.”

Casey, he said, was a “champion of voting rights and democracy” who understands the “deep interconnection between the need to make the economy work for people and the need to protect our democracy.”

If you’ve watched much television lately, you’ve noticed lots of McCormick ads. Casey said those ads are “paid for by out-of-state billionaires,” then leveled an attack that helped sink Mehmet Oz, the last Republican to seek a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat (Oz lost to Democrat John Fetterman in 2020), that of being a “carpetbagger.” McCormick, Casey said, is lying about living in Pennsylvania and that his true home is Connecticut.

Casey said the race presents voters with a “very simple choice at the national level and here in Pennsylvania.” What’s on the line? A number of rights, he said, including those of workers. He pointed to his own support for the Protect the Right to Organize Act, which expands protections covering workers rights to organize and collectively bargain. McCormick would never support such a bill, Casey said.

“I have a long track record, decades long, of supporting workers while [McCormick] has been running a big hedge fund … that was investing in China’s companies, in China’s workers, in China’s economy.”

After the event, Casey and Schiff gathered in a corner with reporters and took several questions on a variety of topics. At one point, the discussion returned to the insurrection. What’s the level of concern among lawmakers that the nation could experience a return to violence after the November election?

“My concern is pretty high,” said Schiff. “This is shaping up like another very close election. We already see in one of America’s political parties a continued perpetuation of a lie about the last election and laying the groundwork to challenge the next election if they lose.

“At some point, beginning about a decade ago, there was a change in the American body politic in which one party decided that if it couldn’t win, it would try to change the rules or contest the results. And I can only hope that we have learned from the tragedy of that effort to challenge the election of 2020 and to propagate false claims of fraud.”

Casey answered by pointing out the actions of McCormick, who’s been attacked for his closeness to Republicans who supported Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“It’s not good enough to just say you’re not going to support another effort to overturn an election,” he said. “You should not be empowering the very people who attacked the Capitol. Hiring fake electors in your campaign, like McCormick did, hiring fake electors to run your political action committee, empowering people and lifting up people and accepting the support of people who were part of the insurrection … it undermines everything some Republicans say they want to do to protect our elections.”