Newly released video from the Jan. 6, 2021 protest at the U.S. Capitol shows then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying she was responsible for the absence of National Guard forces.
In the video, released by Republicans on the House Oversight Subcommittee, Pelosi is heard telling her Chief of Staff, Terri McCullough: "We have responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have."
"This is ridiculous. You’re going to 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?” Pelosi continued. “Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?”
An off-camera voice in the footage suggests: "They thought that they had sufficient resources," to which Pelosi responds, "They clearly didn’t know. And I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more."
The footage was shot by Pelosi's documentary filmmaker daughter, Alexandra, who created the HBO documentary "The Insurrectionist Next Door" about J6.
The video adds additional outrage to testimony that was concealed by Rep. Liz Cheney and the House Select Committee that Pelosi approved of to investigate the Jan. 6 protest.
Donald Trump has said that Pelosi "was in charge of security" on J6 and that she had "turned down 10,000 soldiers" that Trump offered to deploy. "If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had Jan 6."
Larry Ward, president of Political Media, Inc. (PMI), said in a social media post: "Everything Trump said about Jan 6 is true. Everything the Democrats, Jan 6 committee and Mainstream Media said was a lie."
On Monday, a squinting Pelosi spoke in the friendly confines of MSNBC to insist that what House Republicans released, her own words, is "revisionist history."
In March, The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway reported that Cheney and the Select Committee had falsely claimed they had "no evidence" to support Trump White House officials’ claims that Trump had asked for 10,000 National Guard troops.
The Federalist obtained transcripts from an interview Select Committee investigators conducted with Trump’s former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato indicating that Trump had taken steps to deploy the National Guard on J6.
The transcript reads: “A January 6 committee staffer asked Ornato, ‘When it comes to the National Guard statement about having 10,000 troops or any other number of troops, do you recall any discussion prior to the 6th about whether and how many National Guard troops to deploy on January 6th?’ Ornato surprised the committee by noting he did recall a conversation between [Mark] Meadows and [DC Mayor Muriel] Bowser: ‘He was on the phone with her and wanted to make sure she had everything that she needed,’ Ornato told investigators.”
Ornato also testified that Meadows “wanted to know if [Bowser] needed any more guardsman” - “And I remember the number 10,000 coming up of, you know, ‘The president wants to make sure that you have enough.’ You know, ‘He is willing to ask for 10,000.’ I remember that number.”
Hemingway noted: "Not only did the committee not accurately characterize the interview, they suppressed the transcript from public review. On top of that, committee allies began publishing critical stories and even conspiracy theories about Ornato ahead of follow-up interviews with him. Ornato was a career Secret Service official who had been detailed to the security position in the White House."
Steven Sund, who was chief of Capitol Police at the time of the J6 protest, didn't hold back on Pelosi:
Pelosi was surprised we didn’t have National Guard on Jan6?? I was denied National Guard support multiple times before January 6, and repeatedly for 71 minutes ON January 6. MY STORY HASN’T CHANGED!@RepLoudermilk @oversightadmn https://t.co/BIrV49GV6d
— Chief Steven Sund (@ChiefSund) June 10, 2024
