Friday, July 9, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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On Jan. 6, Jerry Sanders dropped what he was doing when he heard the U.S. Capitol was under attack.
“I literally went home and my wife and I watch all afternoon and night until they stopped showing it,” said Sanders, president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
On Jan. 7, the 71-year-old former San Diego mayor and chief of police decided to quit the Republican Party he had joined when he first registered to vote.
Sanders and his wife, Rana Sampson — a former policing consultant and patrol sergeant on the New York City police force — watched in disbelief as the violence unfolded on Capitol Hill.
The assault aimed at halting the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president and the attacks on overwhelmed police officers attempting to defend the seat of Congress hit hard.
“It was visceral,” Sanders said of his reaction. “It was something I never would have dreamed of.”
Like many other Republicans, the former mayor said he had become disillusioned with the direction of the Republican Party and the toxic tone of former President Donald Trump. Sanders said he never voted for him.
“I guess I was always concerned with Trump,” he said. “He was just too divisive for me.”
Trump’s incitement of the mob and the immediate downplaying of the riot by some of his congressional supporters was the final straw.
“I didn’t understand that at all,” he said. “Wrong is wrong.”
“That really was the impetus,” added Sanders, who changed his voter registration to “no party preference.”
Sanders did not go public with his decision and it surfaced inadvertently in a New York Times article about the Republican Party’s declining influence in cities and suburban areas.
Sanders was interviewed for the story and said later that, given he was contacted because he was a Republican former mayor, he had to note he was no longer a member of the party. The connection with the Capitol insurrection was mentioned in passing.
In our interview, it was clear how deeply the attack disturbed him.
“It really bothered me a lot,” he said. “I thought it was the worst thing I had ever seen.”
Sanders describes himself as a fiscal conservative who is moderate on social issues.
The son of a police officer, Sanders joined the San Diego Police Department at age 22 and steadily rose through the ranks. He served as chief from 1993 until 1999.
He then became CEO of the United Way of San Diego County and served as chairperson of the board of the local American Red Cross chapter. He won a special election for mayor in 2005 and was reelected to a full four-year term in 2008.
Sanders described the current political situation as bleak. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said. “But it will get better.”
Sanders is known for his calm demeanor, but he seethes at Republicans who dismiss the Capitol riot, along with their claim that the election was stolen from Trump and their continued fealty to him.
“It’s absolutely (garbage) to me. You can’t explain something like that,” Sanders said. “We have a Constitution for a reason.”
He expressed his admiration for Republican Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyomingand Adam Kinzinger of Illinois for standing up to Trump and his acolytes.
Sanders was further taken aback by Republicans in Congress who in May blocked a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurrection. He also expressed his ire at the nearly two dozen members who voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who tried to stave off the rioters.
“I’m still shocked by some of the votes they’ve taken,” he said. “They can’t explain it away like it didn’t happen. ... They want to revise history. It’s disgusting.”
The former police chief, who pointed out some rioters wore body armor and carried weapons, described the officers who helped keep members of Congress out of harm’s way as “heroes.”
“They did a tremendous job holding the line where they did,” he said.
He still finds some images from that day haunting, particularly the video of an officer being crushed in a Capitol doorway.
“It was horrible,” he said.
Sanders said he was troubled that current and former police officers were part of the mob that “desecrated” the U.S. Capitol.
“I don’t know how you get that disaffected,” he said.
Sanders said cynicism is not uncommon within police ranks. Typically, he said, it can affect officers who have been on the job a handful of years or so, but they usually move beyond it. He said he had never seen it trigger this kind of behavior when he was with SDPD.
He also reflected on the days when the San Diego department did intense community policing in neighborhoods and how well some very conservative officers interacted with children of all races and backgrounds.
“By and large, cops want to see things get better,” Sanders said.
His current view of the state of affairs may be dark, but Sanders believes things will get brighter. However, he said for that to happen, Trump has to be moved to the sidelines — especially if the Republican Party is to get back on track.
He especially has faith in potential future leaders who come from “a smart, young generation that’s accepting of others.”
“I’m always optimistic,” Sanders added, “that we’ll work our way through this.”
Michael Smolens is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
