Previously unaired footage of Representative Nancy Pelosi around January 6, 2021, shows the former speaker’s unfiltered rage against Donald Trump for leading his supporters to the Capitol.
The footage, captured by Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra Pelosi, shows the events of January 5, 6, and 7, including the former House speaker’s evacuation from the Capitol.
“I do not support this,” Pelosi told security personnel as she was escorted out of the Capitol, according to a review of the footage by Politico . “If they stop the proceedings, they will have succeeded in stopping the validation of the presidency of the United States.”
She criticized the Capitol police and other security officials for being caught off guard.
“How many times did the members ask, ‘Are we prepared? Are we prepared?’ We’re not prepared for the worst,” Pelosi said. “We’re calling the National Guard, now? It should’ve been here to start out. I just don’t understand it. Why do we empower people this way by not being ready?”
Pelosi and other congressional leaders were sent to Fort McNair and watched news footage while they waited for the Capitol to be secured. After Trump’s video statement praising the rioters, repeating his allegations of a stolen election, and telling rioters to go home, they were furious.
“We shouldn’t let him off the hook, Nancy. We issued a statement saying he’s got to make a statement. He comes up with this BS,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, referring to Trump.
“Insurrection. That’s a crime, and he’s guilty of it,” Pelosi replied a minute later.
After finally leaving the Capitol after midnight, Pelosi began to plan how to respond to Trump and the unrest he had fomented.
“I just feel sick about what he did to the Capitol and the country today,” Pelosi said as she sat exhausted in the back of her SUV. “He’s got to pay a price for that.”
The footage also captured Pelosi on the morning of January 7, preparing to return to the Capitol and planning how to respond to the actions of the previous day. She spoke to top aides about remarks she planned to deliver at a press conference, and tried to keep the focus on Trump as opposed to Capitol law enforcement.
“I think our focus has to be on the president. Let’s not divert ourselves,” Pelosi said, responding to communications director Henry Connelly recommending a call for Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to resign.
When another aide followed up that “the press is very focused on this,” Pelosi replied that she didn’t “want to have it on a par with the insurrection and impeachment and all of that.”
But, Pelosi didn’t want to say definitively that the House would impeach Trump, because she wasn’t sure she would have every House Democrat on board, particularly the conservative Blue Dog faction.
Pelosi also asked her aides for a list of Trump’s cabinet so that she could identify them by name in her statement to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and have him removed from office. She said she intended to describe the future convicted felon as a “domestic enemy in the White House.”
“Let’s not mince words about this,” Pelosi said. Her statement would end up leaving out the domestic enemy line as well as Trump’s cabinet.
Republicans on the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee have already issued a statement criticizing Pelosi for shifting “the focus of the failure on President Trump” rather than taking “responsibility for her failure to secure the Capitol grounds on January 6.” But, other footage released earlier this year hasn’t exactly helped their cause. Meanwhile, special counsel Jack Smith is reviving the case against Donald Trump for his actions on that day.
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