According to a recently released redacted HBO video from the House Committee on Administration, Nancy Pelosi, then-House Speaker (D-CA), tried to blame Donald Trump immediately for the incident on January 6, instead of accepting responsibility as Speaker.
The video supports the claims made by Donald Trump, former president of the United States, that Pelosi failed to provide adequate security for protestors.
The video, which was redacted and published on Wednesday by Politico, shows Pelosi being carried off the House floor to her SUV by Capitol Police. The video shows Pelosi asking if the then-Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell approved a request to the National Guard. According to the video, McConnell approved the request.
Trump had offered to send the National Guard days before January 6th but was turned down. As Joel Pollak reported, in June, “Trump’s critics later blamed him for not sending the Guard quickly during the riot.”
How many times have the members asked, “Are we ready?” “Are we prepared?” We’re not ready for the worst,” Pelosi says in the video. “We’re calling in the National Guard right now?” It should have been here from the beginning. I don’t get it. “Why do we empower people in this way when they are not ready?”
These comments are a continuation of comments made in previous HBO footage, released in June, where Pelosi admitted responsibility for not having the National Guard guarding the Capitol Building.
Politico reported that Pelosi started planning to blame Trump for this incident on January 7 instead of calling for Steven Sund, the Capitol Police chief, to resign. “I believe our focus must be on the President. Pelosi warned, “Let’s not diversion ourselves.” “I do not want it to be on the same level as insurrection, impeachment, and all that.”
Politico published a report on Pelosi’s strategy of public relations to avoid responsibility.
Pelosi told aides that she spoke to Sund on Jan. 6 and that he “threw his people under the bus.” She also urged them to “soften” their criticism of Sund, calling it a “failure in leadership at the Capitol Police’s top.”
The discussion then turned to Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, the House’s highest security official. The group debated whether Irving should be retained to oversee security at the upcoming inauguration.
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Pelosi concluded the conversation by requesting a list with the names of Trump’s Cabinet members so that she could address them by name as she encouraged them to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office. She said that she also intended to call Trump “a domestic foe in the White House.”
“Let’s not mince words about this,” Pelosi said.
