Jan. 6 police hero becomes go-to witness for Democrats in Congress to counter Trump

Daniel Hodges thinks of himself as an introvert — he's soft-spoken and says he's averse to the spotlight. At night, he's a local police officer in Washington, D.C. But during his off-duty hours this year, Hodges has become a unique and very public advocate on Capitol Hill.

He told CBS News he's trying to be a firewall to block the whitewashing of the history of the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol siege.

"The only thing that will stop me is if people stop lying about Jan. 6 and just acknowledge what the day was and what really transpired," Hodges said.  

He was among the more than 140 police officers injured while trying to stop the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

With Republicans now in control of the White House and Congress and some in the party downplaying the severity of the Capitol siege, there are limited platforms for victims of the attack to talk about its impact on their lives.

Hodges has become a go-to witness for Democrats in congressional hearings about police safety.  

The mission generates some stress and conflict for Hodges. At an October subcommittee hearing in the Senate, Hodges watched as three of his fellow witnesses raised their hands, when asked if they supported President Trump's pardons of the Jan. 6 attackers, including those who had beaten Hodges. One of the witnesses who raised his hand was a former homeland security secretary during President Trump's first administration.

As the minority in the House and the Senate, Democrats are permitted to call one witness at most hearings, to serve as a "minority party" witness who provides a counterpoint to the witnesses called by the majority. 

Twice this autumn, Democrats have called on Hodges.  

"The power of Dan Hodges's narrative comes from the self-control he displays," said Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat who is the ranking Democrat of a Senate judiciary subcommittee that called Hodges to testify in October. Welch said Hodges, "erased any of the legitimate anger he may have had about Jan. 6,  to just tell us what happened during the hearing."

Democrats argue Hodges' testimony and presence at congressional hearings underscores the hypocrisy of Trump supporters who are making public statements in support of tougher laws or policies to protect police at the same time they're downplaying the attacks on law enforcement officers on Jan. 6.

Welch noted that Republicans declined to ask Hodges any questions or speak to him in the hearing room after the testimony.

"You have to do an immense amount of intellectual and emotional jujitsu to pretend you didn't hear what Hodges said or acknowledge the reality of what he experienced," Welch said.

At a Dec. 3 hearing convened by the House Homeland Security Committee titled "When Badges Become Targets: How Anti-Law Enforcement Rhetoric Fuels Violence Against Officers," Hodges testified that Mr. Trump's mass pardon of more than 1,500 Capitol riot defendants emboldens and encourages further violence against police.

"The press release announcing this hearing made it sound like certain participants were going to spend a few hours scratching their heads and pretending to not understand why threats against law enforcement have risen so sharply this year, and I cannot abide such a farce," Hodges said in his opening statement.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who called Hodges as a witness for the hearing, said he did so to combat "pervasive misinformation."

Thompson told CBS News, "Everybody saw Jan. 6 with their own eyes. But Trump has convinced a  large percentage of the population that those were not insurrectionists."

At an October hearing in the Senate titled "Politically Violent Attacks: A Threat to Our Constitutional Order," Hodges was the sole witness called by Democrats.   

"I am intimately familiar with political violence, as when I fought to defend the United States Capitol and many of your very lives, I was beaten, bloodied, and crushed, with my eye gouged and skull smashed with my own baton," Hodges testified.

He criticized Republicans on the panel for not acknowledging the Capitol riot, telling them,  "My colleagues were under attack by a mob."  

Hodges said Republican members of the panels did not ask him questions about Jan. 6 during the public hearings of the committees, nor did they thank him after the proceedings. Spokespeople for the Republican chairmen of the panels at which Hodges has testified this year did not respond to CBS News requests for comment about Hodges's testimony. 

At a House hearing this month in which Hodges appeared as a witness, the Republican chair of the committee opened the proceedings with broader statements about the risk of "inflammatory rhetoric" endangering the lives of law enforcement and risking homeland security, including recent rhetoric criticizing federal immigration agents.   

Hodges spoke with CBS News as a private citizen, not as a representative of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.

He had testified previously before a national audience, in 2021 at a public hearing of the House Jan. 6 select committee, which investigated the causes and impact of the riot.

Mr. Trump's victory in 2024 and his first-day pardons of the riot defendants have triggered criticisms of the administration that it is ignoring – or rewriting – the history of the siege.

In issuing the clemency of Capitol riot defendants, the White House said the President's decision  "ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation."

Hodges acknowledges he also has received threats and menacing amid his public statements.

Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who has attended some congressional hearings to support Hodges, told CBS News, "Danny has been unwavering and cleared every obstacle he's faced, while continuing to serve."

Dunn, who also testified and appeared at hearings of the House Jan. 6 select committee in 2021-22, said, "Danny's and my mission has been the same. We're seeking accountability and justice against those who were responsible for the worst days of our lives."

Hodges told CBS News it will be impossible to convince all Americans about the truth of the impact of Jan. 6 on the police victims. When asked if he's optimistic that the deniers of the violence of the siege will change their minds, Hodges paused before answering. 

"There are still people out there who think the moon landing was fake and that the Holocaust wasn't real," he said. "So you are not going to get 100%."