Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who was badly injured while fighting off insurrectionists on Jan. 6, says he is now ignored by Republicans in the Capitol hallways. In fact, the only Republicans in Congress who have checked in on him after the Capitol attack are Rep. Liz Cheney (WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL).
The rest of the GOP, who pretend to support "blue lives," treat him like a pariah, according to the sergeant, who was trampled by the mob during the riot.
"When you have multiple number of rioters attacking you, taking turns beating you up, and then you have a lot of the people who we protected on that day downplaying what happened, sometimes I run into them in the hallway and then they pretend not to see me," he told MSNBC this morning on Morning Joe.
"I don't hold any grudges. I'm still going to be respectful to them … but they don't want to talk to me," said the U.S. army veteran (see video clip below), who wrote about Donald Trump's grand betrayal of the Capitol Police, "all Americans," and the president's "oath to defend the Constitution" in a New York Times op-ed on Sunday.
Although Gonell says he doesn't need a pat on the back from the people he protected, their behavior "shows a lot from the people who claim that they support the police and 'back the blue' and are pro-'law and order," he said. "It's disheartening."
Front page thumbnail image: MSNBC (screengrab)
Via The Hill
