This is a hard message to write — but it’s an important one.

I’ve never looked back after defending our democracy on January 6.

I’ll be straight with you: I’ve done a lot of tough things in my life. I played college football, tried to make it in the NFL. That was tough, mentally, physically, emotionally.

I served as a Capitol police officer for over 15 years, and those were tough some days.

But the aftermath of the January 6th insurrection was one of the toughest things I’ve been …