The Insurrection Interview We’ve Already All Forgotten

Remember Daniel Hodges.

Four months ago, the most upsetting video of the January 6 insurrection involved Daniel Hodges. Hodges was the Capitol police officer who was shown screaming in pain as he was lodged in-between two doors, being smashed by Trump supporters attempting to gain entry into the Capitol building. You may remember his pain; it in many ways represented the brutal reality of that day. A little girl was so moved and scared by what happened to Hodges that she wrote a letter to him. It made those sort of soft-focus feel-good morning show programs that try to make the world seem to have happier endings than it does.

Hodges, less than a week after the insurrection, gave an interview to a local ABC station in Washington, D.C. It was a very well-received interview that many people saw. Here is the full interview:

Hodges’ interview was the first time I felt good after January 6. I wrote the day after about how painful, how overpowering just watching the insurrection on television was, and how much it made you want to despair: How much it made you feel like we might all truly be lost. But Officer Hodges made me feel better. Here was this young police officer — in an age when police officers are under more scrutiny than any other time — not just describing the horrors that he went through (including two insurrectionists attempting to gouge his eyes out), but, breathtakingly, how he would eagerly do it again.

Here is what Officer Hodges said:

“If it wasn’t my job I would have done that for free. It was absolutely my pleasure to crush a white nationalist insurrection. I’m glad I was in a position to be able to help. We’ll do it as many times as it takes.”