Nancy Pelosi can be seen in real time fuming about Donald Trump while the Capitol was under siege and making introspective comments about the massive security failure January 6, new video reveals.
‘There’s a domestic enemy in the White House, and let’s not mince words about this,’ she lectures her aides, waiving her arm, as they met to develop a response to the historic events.
The sound and images were captured by the former House Speaker’s daughter, filmmaker Alexandria, in footage HBO handed over to the Congress and released by the Republican-run House Administration Committee.
In one tense scene, Pelosi can be seen evacuating the Capitol, where she has served since 1987, can be heard calling for then-President Trump to pay for what happened.
‘I just feel sick what he did to the Capitol and to the country today,’ she says, when her daughter asks her what it feels like to be done with Trump. ‘He’s gotta pay a price for that,’ she said. (The question was less than prophetic: Trump is now in a toss up race to reclaim the White House).
In another, she is seen meeting with top aides inside her Capitol office in front of an ornate mirror that has been shattered by rioters who broke into her work space.
In it, she is huddling with aides over the early response to the events, while crafting a statement calling for the resignation of the chief of the Capitol Police.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admits ‘responsibility’ for security failures on January 6 and calls Donald Trump a ‘domestic enemy’ in dramatic new video
‘I think our focus has to be on the president. Let’s not divert ourselves,’ said Pelosi, who got hailed at the Democratic National Convention last week as the ‘mother of dragons’ by introducer Mindy Kaling.
Senior advisor Drew Hammill can be seen ducking out of the room just after Pelosi calls Trump a ‘domestic enemy.’
‘What a mess!’ she exclaims to her aides at one point.
‘I don’t care what they say. They should have had much more anticipation about the National Guard,’ Pelosi vents, in just one of her comments about security lapses amid a years-long battle over blame.
Pelosi never hid her fury at Trump in her public comments after January 6. But the new release of footage also reveals her admission of her own failure to anticipate that an angry mob would storm the building after Trump spoke near the White House while continuing to contest the 2020 election results.
‘If they stop the proceeding, we will have totally failed. And we’ve got to take some responsibility for not holding the security accountable for what could have happened.’
The House Administration Committee’s Oversight subpanel, in its summary of the videos, snips the first part of the quote, so it begins: ‘We have totally failed.’
Pelosi can be heard calling Donald Trump a ‘domestic enemy’ and trying to focus attention and blame on him
The former speaker continues to vent about security lapses and the import of suspending proceedings to certify the president on January 6
‘What a mess!’ she exclaims to her aides at one point, shortly after the Capitol has been breached
Subcommittee chair Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia is leading a probe of January 6 that looks back at the select committee’s probe and focuses on security failures.
‘Oh my god, I cannot believe the stupidity of this. And I take the full responsibility,’ she remarked, in comments highlighted by the panel, which released the video a day after special counsel Jack Smith obtained a new grand jury indictment of Trump for his January 6 case.
Footage shows Pelosi’s security detail escorting Pelosi through the Capitol’s warren of tunnels and to her SUV for safe relocation.
Pelosi indicated she was concerned about what would happen if proceedings to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the election got halted.
‘If they stop the proceedings, they will have succeeded in stopping the validation of the President of the United States,’ Pelosi said. Then-Vice President Mike Pence had similar concerns, and remained in a Capitol garage while the joint meeting of Congress was reorganized.
Pelosi was plainly dissatisfied with the level of planning. She sat on a Capitol Police Board, which includes security officials from both chambers.
‘How many times did the members ask, “Are we prepared? Are we prepared?” We’re not prepared for the worst.’
‘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?’
She also admits to her chief of staff Terri McCullough: ‘I feel responsible.’
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‘We have a responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there and we should have. This is ridiculous.’
In other comments, she vents about the situation while her security vehicle roars through Washington, D.C.
So what’s the prospect? I’m going to stay here all day, the rest of our lives? For what? We’re here until what? Untilt he National Guard decides to come and get rid of these people? Oh my god, I can’t believe the stupidity of this. And I take full responsibility,’ she says.
‘Call the National Guard. I asked them to do that earlier,’ she says as she makes her way into the bowels of the Capitol on the House side.
‘We did,’ McCullough interjects.
‘This is what they brought,’ says former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland to Pelosi as the two pass in the basement, while the former speaker raises her hands.
As she makes her way to a House office building on her way out of the Capitol complex, her security detail tells her protesters have already breached the Capitol.
‘Over and over again — are we prepared for what could happen,’ Pelosi says, speaking mostly to herself. ‘Consider the worst. We didn’t.’
As she walks along an underground subway, she complains about having relinquished the chair.
‘If they stop the proceedings, they will have succeed in stopping the validation of the president of the United States,’ she fumes.