President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is going all-in on presenting former President Donald Trump as a threat to democracy as polling continues to show Biden sinking in swing states.
Biden’s campaign has enlisted the assistance of three police officers who worked at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to further its latest strategy, CNN reports.
Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, Officer Harry Dunn, and Officer Danny Hodges will accuse Trump of posing a threat to democracy in key swing states, beginning in Nevada and Arizona.
Dunn is fresh off a primary defeat in a campaign for a congressional seat from Maryland. His campaign failed after troubling allegations of domestic abuse resurfaced, as well as reports that he was suspended without pay from the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) in 2012 after improperly handling his department-issued firearm.
Dunn left the USCP in 2023.
Biden’s enlistment of the officers is his latest move to advance the political narrative that Trump is somehow a threat to democracy.
Earlier Tuesday, the Biden campaign took the drastic gamble of holding a press conference outside the Manhattan courthouse, where Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s business records trial against Trump is drawing to a close.
The press conference featured actor Robert De Niro — whose rant included claims that if Trump were elected, he would “never leave” office, and Trump would make himself “dictator for life” — as well as Dunn and Michael Fanone, another officer present at the Capitol on January 6 who has leveraged his experience into a lucrative career as a CNN contributor. Dunn himself published a best-selling memoir in 2023 called Standing My Ground.
Former Capitol Hill police officers Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn are interviewed during former President Donald Trump’s business records trial near Manhattan Criminal Court on May 28, 2024, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Biden’s gambit comes as Democrat Party leaders are growing increasingly fearful of Trump’s strength, with Politico reporting that “anxiety has morphed into a palpable trepidation.” As Breitbart News reported:
Nearly all swing state polls show Trump could easily defeat Biden in November. Seven states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina — will likely decide the presidency. If Trump wins one or more of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Biden’s chance of obtaining 270 electoral votes narrows.
Before Tuesday’s press conference, Biden had reportedly stayed quiet on the trial so as not to lend legitimacy to Trump’s accusations of political persecution. Politico reported just Friday that Biden would make a statement when there was a verdict but from a White House “setting” and not a campaign one, so it would not look “political.”
The campaign’s pivot from that strategy may be due to polling showing Americans already believe Trump is being politically persecuted through what Trump and his allies have called “lawfare.”
Biden might feel he has nothing to lose by reversing course, and if he continues lagging in polls, his reluctance to associate himself with the prosecutions of Trump might further deteriorate.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.