At a press conference organized by the Biden campaign on Monday, a former U.S. Capitol Police sergeant and a current D.C. police officer denounced former President Donald Trump as anti-law enforcement for praising and working with rioters charged and convicted with crimes for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. 

Both men suffered injuries during the attack, in which supporters of the former president stormed the building to stop the certification Trump's 2020 election loss.

“That day, we found ourselves in the middle of an unprecedented attack on our Capitol and our country,” former U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aqulino Gonell said. “Those of us in uniform were assaulted and beaten by a mob [spurred] by Trump’s lie that the 2020 election, it was stolen.”

“Trump calls the criminals who attacked… our Capitol hostages, patriots and political prisoners. If they are those things, then who are we, the police officers who defended the Capitol?” Gonell continued. 

Gonell, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic tasked with protecting the seat of his new home country’s government, said he “barely survived” the Capitol attack. He said he was attacked by more than 40 rioters, beaten with his own riot shield and was nearly dragged into the crowd by rioters trying to beat him with the American flag. He required two surgeries and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“That day officers were beaten and brutalized. Trump never reached out to us,” said D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges, speaking in his personal capacity at Monday’s press conference. “You can't call yourself pro law enforcement when you inflame and encourage political violence at every turn.”

While Trump has declared himself to be the “law and order” candidate who needles Democratic elected officials for crime in the cities and states they run and expresses solidarity with police across the country, Gonell and Hodges argued the former president’s support for police is cynical and opportunistic. Last week, Trump attended the wake of slain NYPD officer Jonathan Diller.

“What happened to Det. Diller is a tragedy and should be mourned. His sacrifice should be honored. It should not be a political opportunity for Donald Trump, who only cares about his victims of violence when he thinks it benefits him,” Hodges said. “We know who this man is. It's why his own vice president, who his supporters threatened to hang, is refusing to endorse him. It's why as a law enforcement officer, I believe he has no place anywhere near the Oval Office.”

Trump has labeled those imprisoned for alleged and proven crimes connected to the Capitol attack as “hostages” and promised to pardon them. He often takes the rally stage to a recording of "The Star-Spangled Banner" sung by a choir of jailed men accused and convicted of crimes during the Jan. 6 insurrection, interspersed with the 2024 GOP presumptive presidential nominee saying the pledge of allegiance.

“They asked me whether or not I would partake and do the beautiful words. I said, yes, I would. And you saw the spirit, the spirit was incredible,” Trump said at a rally in November.

Hodges called the song “weird,” but “totally on brand” for Trump. Gonell contrasted the distortion of the national anthem praised by Trump supporters to the animosity targeted at former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who drew ire for kneeling during the national anthem before games to raise awareness about police killings of Black people.

“Tell me again how you support the police and law and order when all these things are happening, and you support the the person who orchestrated the violence -- or set in motion the events -- on Jan. 6 and we lose our career, we’re injured and he’s walking free?” Gonell asked. 

Five of the roughly 15 members of the J6 Prison Choir were identified by the Washington Post in May 2023. All five have since either been convicted or pleaded guilty. Four were charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer, including Julian Khater, 34, who pleaded guilty before the song was recorded to assaulting multiple officers and was sentenced to almost six years in prison.

Khater admitted to spraying Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick with a chemical irritant. Sicknick died the next day from natural causes; the Washington, D.C., chief medical examiner at the time said “all that transpired played a role in his condition.”

Sicknick’s father said last week -- and Hodges echoed him on Monday -- that he blamed Trump for his son’s death.

Other members of the choir used a large wooden stick to attempt to strike officers, wielded an ax handle, a tomahawk and a crowbar, sprayed chemical irritants and threatened to kill Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I have murder in my heart and head,” one of the choir members, Shane Jenkins, wrote to an associate in the weeks after the riot, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of seven felonies and two misdemeanors. 

Monday’s Biden campaign press conference came a day before Trump’s scheduled rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where his campaign says he will address “Biden’s Border Bloodbath.” Michigan’s GOP chair told CBS News he expects Trump will address the recent killing of a 25-year-old woman in the Grand Rapids area. An immigrant from Mexico who returned to the U.S. illegally after being deported in 2020 has been accused of the killing by police. 

“He's planning to use the horrible murder of a young woman to scare, to divide, to sow hate, because that's how he thinks he can win the election,” Hodges said. “Trump recently said there would be a bloodbath if he wasn't elected, and that if he lost there would be no more elections. I know what he means because I saw what he wants on Jan. 6.”