Previously unreleased video from Jan. 6, 2021, shows that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly identified Donald Trump as the force behind the violent attack on the Capitol. The video was turned over to the Republican-led House Committee on Administration by Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, a filmmaker who was there to document the Electoral College vote count.
The video shows that within hours of the insurrection, Pelosi identified Trump as "a domestic enemy."
“I just feel sick about what he did to the Capitol and the country today,” Pelosi said while slumped in the back of an SUV in the early morning hours of Jan. 7. “He’s got to pay a price for that.”
The video also shows the speaker’s reluctance about being removed from the House chamber by security forces, even as Trump’s rioters entered the building, because she knew exactly what was at stake.
“If they stop the proceedings,” Pelosi says in the video, “they will have succeeded in stopping the validation of the presidency of the United States."
The video showing the focus on Trump's instigation of events comes as special counsel Jack Smith has filed a superseding indictment in the case against Donald Trump for his role in Jan. 6
"We take an oath to protect our country from all enemies, foreign and domestic," Pelsoi told those around her in the hours following the attack. "There is a domestic enemy in the White House. And let's not mince words about this."
Pelosi also seemed to doubt that congressional leaders were being removed for their own protection, rather than as part of the scheme to halt the counting of electoral votes.
"Shame on us," she said as security officials escorted her away from the Capitol. "Shame on us. I'm suspicious of them and their motivations, tell you the truth."
Overall, the video shows that Pelosi clearly understood what was happening on Jan. 6, the genuine threat it represented to American democracy, and Trump’s role as the instigator of the attack on Congress.
On Tuesday, a Washington, D.C., grand jury reindicted Trump on charges connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The new indictment follows the shocking Supreme Court decision that granted presidents wide exemption from the law in the performance of official duties. While it removes some material connected to actions that might have been seen as “official” and restricts the descriptions of Trump’s activities to only those in which he is clearly behaving as a candidate, the new indictment retains all four of the felony charges that were in the previous indictment:
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Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
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Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding
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Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding
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Conspiracy Against Rights.
That final charge reflects how Trump’s actions were not just an attack on a proceeding, but an assault on the right of every American to vote and to have their vote counted. However, as might be expected, some media outlets are giving this story very little attention.
The Republican-led House Committee on Administration is sure to play up a portion of the just-released video in which Pelosi blames herself for not giving the National Guard sufficient warning of just how bad events on Jan. 6 might become.
"Why weren't the National Guard there to begin with?" Pelosi asks at one point as she is being escorted out of the Capitol. "They clearly didn't know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepared for more.”
Republicans are likely to pounce on this statement as confirmation of Trump’s false claims that Pelsoi “took full responsibility” for the security of the Capitol. However, Pelosi did not have the authority to call in the National Guard. Previously released footage shows Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer desperately trying to get someone to bring in the Guard, only to meet with little response.
Watch the footage, edited for brevity by Politico, below.
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