Moments after the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was recorded on video taking responsibility for the inadequate security plan for the Capitol that day, according to footage released by House GOP investigators on Monday.
In the video, Pelosi is heard saying, “We have responsibility Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous.”
Asking rhetorically in frustration, she added, “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?’ Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?”
Her chief of staff, Terri McCullough, responded, “They thought that they had sufficient…resources.”
Pelosi retorted, “No, that’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.”
The footage was recorded by Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra, who was conveniently prepared with equipment to assist HBO with a documentary about the January 6 riot. The video was not fully aired until Monday, when Republicans on the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee released it after obtaining it from the TV network.
House Republicans argue that the footage blatantly challenges the three-year Democrat-led narrative that the failures of January 6 were solely the responsibility of President Trump and his followers.
Watch the video here.
