Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lashed out at a reporter who asked why the former House speaker “refused the National Guard” on Jan. 6, 2021 as she was being assisted out of the Capitol Building Wednesday.
Pelosi, who was clutching the hand of an aide as she gingerly navigated the steps of the Capitol, quickly spun around, pointed her finger at the LindellTV reporter’s face and appeared enraged at the suggestion that a new Republican-led committee investigating the riot might find her “liable.”
“Shut up!” Pelosi, 85, barked.
“I did not refuse the National Guard. The president didn’t send it. Why are you coming here with Republican talking points as if you are a serious journalist?” she fumed.
A report on the riot, authored by House Republicans in 2022, found that Democratic leadership had concerns over the “optics” of having National Guard troops present at the Capitol in the aftermath of the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
Last year, the Republican-led House Committee on Administration released footage of Pelosi repeatedly admitting that she should have done more to protect the US Capitol from the January 6 rioters.
The footage was shot on the day of the riot by the California Democrat’s filmmaker daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, for an HBO documentary.
“We have totally failed. We have to take some responsibility for not holding the security accountable for what could have happened,” the congresswoman raged at one point.
“Oh my god, I cannot believe the stupidity of this. And I take the full responsibility,” Pelosi added.
At another point in the revealing footage, Pelosi chides a top aide for asking her amid the chaos if they should call in the National Guard.
“You’re gonna ask me in the middle of the thing, when they’ve already breached the inaugural stuff, ‘Should we call the Capitol Police?’ I mean the National Guard. Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?” Pelosi said.
When the aide explained that the National Guard believed they had “sufficient resources,” the then-House Speaker shot back: “It’s not a question of how they had … they don’t know! They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.”
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) is leading a new select subcommittee under the House Judiciary Committee, tasked with revisiting the Capitol riot.
“While Dems seem keen on playing political games and doubling down on the predetermined political narrative of Pelosi’s former committee, Republicans will continue to pursue the facts in an objective manner no matter where they lead,” Loudermilk said in a statement.
“The American people deserve a complete and accurate account of the security failures that occurred on January 6, so this level of security failure never happens again.”
A select committee established by Pelosi in the aftermath of the riot released a 814-page report on the incident in December 2022 – following an 18-month-long investigation – that accused President Trump of engaging in a criminal “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
