Aquilino Gonell, former law enforcement officer almost crushed to death On January 6, 2021, the mob that stormed the Capitol still carries debris from the building’s tunnel entrance.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” on Thursday, the Iraq War veteran showed the pieces to remind the public of the day rioters stormed the Capitol in protest of then-President Donald Trump. the lie that the election was stolen.
But he also hoped they could be shown to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, “because he was hosting the guy who sent the mob last week to smash and tear down the doors of the Capitol, where I almost died,” Gonell said.
Dominican American Gonell had to undergo physical and mental rehabilitation due to his injuries. He said Johnson and other Republicans who greeted Trump were alive because of the actions of him and his colleagues on Jan. 6, “not because of the guy they saw as a hero. He did nothing to keep them safe. For God’s sake, he’s the one who sent them to the Capitol, and he’s not here at all.” they hug him as if nothing happened.”
His injuries forced him to retire In December 2022.
Trump made his first visit to the Capitol about June 13th and received enthusiastically, even applauded by some lawmakers who denounced him after the deadly Capitol violence. At a Capitol meeting where some lawmakers celebrated Trump’s early birthday with a cake, the deaths and attacks on police officers were forgotten.
Gonell said he and the officers he contacted were “sickened” last week to see the senators “holding hands with the same person who forced (them) to run for their lives on Jan. 6.”
“It looks like an abusive relationship that they’re in,” she said.
NBC News reached out to Johnson’s office for a response.
Gonell, a US citizen born in the Dominican Republic, In 2021, he testified before a committee of the House of Representatives investigated the violent Capitol attack. He described the clash as a “long and desperate battle”. He said he slipped in the middle of it and was then attacked and nearly crushed by Trump supporters. As it became difficult to breathe, he thought, “I’m going to die like this,” he testified.
In his memoir, American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Defending Democracy, Gonell describes how the attack on the Capitol tested him, comparing his actions on Jan. 6 to his loyalty to this country and its foundations as an immigrant.
He writes admirably of the United States and how he was able to rise from a poor family to become the first person in his family to graduate college, serve his adopted country, and be promoted to sergeant in the Capitol Police. But he also devotes the second part of his book to the Jan. 6 attack, taking readers through harrowing moments and how things escalated as Trump tweeted support for the rioters.
Gonell stands at the top of a feed of photos documenting the attack on him on X, formerly Twitter.
In an interview with MSNBC, he said he was sent to Iraq in 2004, where he fought for democracy.
“20 years later, here we are in the United States, and the party that sent me to Iraq is supporting someone who wants to be a dictator,” Gonell said. “It should be surprising and you should be afraid, because nothing good will come of it.”