Daniel Hodges describes himself as an introvert — soft-spoken and uncomfortable in the spotlight — and serves nights as a Metropolitan Police officer in Washington, D.C. This year, though off duty, Hodges has emerged as a public, vocal advocate on Capitol Hill, determined to prevent what he calls the whitewashing of Jan. 6, 2021.
“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 told CBS News. He was one of more than 140 officers injured trying to stop the U.S. Capitol siege.
With Republicans holding the White House and Congress and some party members downplaying the riot’s severity, platforms for victims to share the attack’s toll are limited. Still, Hodges has become a go-to witness for House and Senate Democrats in hearings about threats to law enforcement.
That role has been stressful and at times uncomfortable. At an October Senate subcommittee hearing, Hodges watched three fellow witnesses raise their hands in support of President Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 defendants — including attackers who had beaten Hodges. One of those witnesses was a former homeland security secretary from the Trump administration.
As the minority in each chamber, Democrats are allowed to call only one witness at many hearings to provide a counterpoint to majority witnesses. Democrats have twice chosen Hodges this fall.
Sen. Peter Welch, the ranking Democrat on a Senate judiciary subcommittee that called Hodges in October, praised his testimony. “The power of Dan Hodges’s narrative comes from the self-control he displays,” Welch said, noting Hodges “erased any of the legitimate anger he may have had about Jan. 6, to just tell us what happened during the hearing.”
Democrats say Hodges’ testimony highlights a contrast: some Trump supporters publicly promote tougher protections for police even as they minimize the Jan. 6 attacks on law enforcement. Welch added that Republican members declined to question Hodges or speak with him in the hearing room after his 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 House Homeland Security Committee hearing titled “When Badges Become Targets: How Anti-Law Enforcement Rhetoric Fuels Violence Against Officers,” Hodges warned that President Trump’s mass pardon of more than 1,500 Capitol rioters emboldens further violence against police. In his opening statement he criticized what he described as a farce: “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.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who called Hodges to that hearing, said he sought to combat “pervasive misinformation.” “Everybody saw Jan. 6 with their own eyes. But Trump has convinced a large percentage of the population that those were not insurrectionists,” Thompson told CBS News.
At the October Senate hearing, “Politically Violent Attacks: A Threat to Our Constitutional Order,” Hodges — the Democrats’ sole witness — recounted his injuries: “I was beaten, bloodied, and crushed, with my eye gouged and skull smashed with my own baton,” he testified, and criticized Republicans who would not acknowledge the riot. Hodges said Republican committee members did not ask him questions about Jan. 6 during public hearings and did not thank him afterward. Spokespeople for the Republican chairmen of panels where Hodges has testified did not respond to CBS News requests for comment.
Hodges has spoken to Congress before: he testified at the House Jan. 6 select committee in 2021. The 2024 election outcome and the President’s early pardons of riot defendants have renewed criticism that the administration is rewriting or ignoring the siege’s history. The White House defended the clemency as ending “a grave national injustice” and beginning “a process of national reconciliation.”
Hodges said he has received threats amid his public statements. Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who has supported Hodges at hearings, called him “unwavering” and said both men share a mission: seeking accountability and justice for what they call the worst days of their lives.
Hodges told CBS News he does not expect to persuade everyone. When asked whether he believed deniers of Jan. 6’s violence could change their minds, he paused and said, “There are still people out there who think the moon landing was fake and that the Holocaust wasn’t real. So you are not going to get 100%.”