One of the most poignant moments at Tuesday’s insurrection hearings came when convicted rioter Stephen Ayres apologized afterward to police who defended the Capitol during the attack. But while images of Ayres’ act of contrition quickly went viral, Officer Harry Dunn made it clear that he did not accept the apology. On Tuesday evening, a Twitter user captioned a picture of Ayres and Dunn shaking hands: “An apology given and accepted.” Minutes later, Dunn replied to the post to say: “*Apology given…” Dunn later appeared on MSNBC’s The Last Word in which he clarified his feelings toward Ayres, who had testified that he’d gone to the Capitol following a tweeted call to action from former President Donald Trump. “I acknowledged his apology, but I had other things going on where I’m not accepting it at the moment,” Dunn said.
