“I take full responsibility.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) comments – the exact opposite of what she had been saying publicly for nearly 44 months – were made on January 6th as she and her Democratic colleagues watched on television protests and violence at the US Capitol, according to new video footage.
In one video clip, she claimed she took responsibility, but in another she slammed former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, claiming he was to blame for the events of January 6th.
Pelosi also claimed that she asked the National Guard to “get these people out” on January 6, despite her office having denied a request to deploy the National Guard just days earlier.
Sund said that if Pelosi had simply approved the request to deploy the National Guard on January 3, “we wouldn't be here today discussing this.”
“They should have expected more from the National Guard.”
“I am astonished by Ms. Pelosi's repeated statements that the National Guard was not deployed to the Capitol prior to the January 6th attack,” Sund told The Blaze News. “It was the House Chief of Sergeant at Arms who denied my request for assistance on January 3rd, and it was Ms. Pelosi's Chief of Sergeant at Arms who repeatedly refused for 71 minutes during the January 6th attack.”
The House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight released six new video clips from previously unaired documentary footage filmed on Jan. 6 after Speaker Pelosi and other House leaders were evacuated from the Capitol to nearby Fort McNair.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee, said the video was in the possession of the now-defunct Select Committee on January 6 but was not turned over to House Republicans in January 2023, as required by House rules.
The Supervisory Subcommittee Get the video The company can buy directly from Home Box Office, Loudermilk said.
“For more than three years, Nancy Pelosi has refused to take responsibility for the failure to secure the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021,” Loudermilk said.
“Instead, she has placed the focus of failure on President Trump. As Speaker, she controlled the operation of the House and security on the House side of the Capitol, as she acknowledges in this HBO footage.”
“It's a total victory for them.”
“No matter what they say, they should have expected more from the National Guard,” Pelosi said as she and other House members watched a video of coverage from Fort McNair.
Pelosi's remarks contradict what House protocol staff told Sund, who said he had desperately tried to get approval for National Guard assistance from the moment the crowd broke through the first police line at 12:53 p.m. on January 6.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks about her response to the January 6 violence while driving to the Capitol on January 7, 2021. Alexandra Pelosi/HBO via Rep. Barry Loudermilk
One of the videos, filmed by Pelosi's daughter Alexandra for the HBO documentary “Pelosi in the House,” shows the speaker in a Capitol Police vehicle on her way to Fort McNair after top officials were evacuated from the Capitol at 2:15 p.m. The House had just announced it was recessing after rioters breached the Senate wing doors.
“They were forced to adjourn,” Pelosi said. “It's a total victory for them.”
“Oh my goodness, I can't believe this stupidity. I take full responsibility,” Pelosi said, as Capitol Police vehicles with sirens blaring directed traffic.
Pelosi was visibly frustrated at being removed from the Capitol to a safe location. “Are we going to be here all day? The rest of our lives or what?” she yelled. “How long are we going to be here? Until the National Guard decides to come and remove these people?”
“We have to come up with a different plan. Pelosi would never go along with it.”
According to congressional testimony, more than an hour earlier, Sund had asked House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving to declare a state of emergency and authorize a request for the National Guard.
“Irving advised me that I needed to report up the chain of command,” Sund testified before the U.S. Senate in February 2021.
The House marshal is appointed by and reports to the speaker. Under rules in place at the time, the police chief couldn't even call for National Guard assistance without authorization from the Capitol Police Board. The board's voting members include the House and Senate marshals and the architect of the Capitol. Sund was a natural member.
Sund first requested National Guard assistance from Irving and the Capitol Police Board at 1:09 pm on January 6. Sund said he contacted Irving multiple times to ask for updates but was told a decision would be made soon. Pelosi approved Irving's request for National Guard assistance from the Department of Defense. That decision was conveyed to Sund by the Police Board at 2:10 pm, three minutes before the breach through the Senate door of the Capitol.
Sund told Loudermilk's subcommittee on Sept. 19, 2023, that he had requested the National Guard be deployed three days before Jan. 6, but the request was denied after Irving said Pelosi “absolutely wouldn't be in favor of it.”
Sund said Irving suggested he speak with Senate Parliamentary Secretary Michael Stenger about the matter on Jan. 3, 2021. Stenger, who died June 27, 2022, later told Sund that Irving had called him and tipped him off that the chief was on his way, Sund testified.
“And he told me that Paul Irving called him beforehand and said, 'Sund is here looking for militia, he's requested the National Guard. We've got to come up with a different plan. Pelosi would never accept it.'”
“I was shocked that he would say that,” Sund testified.
President Trump authorized the mobilization of up to 20,000 National Guard troops during a White House meeting on January 3, 2021, according to Kash Patel, a former senior Trump aide who attended the meeting. Under federal law, the president cannot order the mobilization of the National Guard for domestic law enforcement purposes; he can only authorize it. In the case of the District of Columbia, Mayor Muriel Bowser or a federal law enforcement agency could have requested the mobilization of the National Guard.
In another video taken as Pelosi walked to a subway beneath the Capitol building during the evacuation, she is heard telling a Capitol Police guard, “I say it again and again: Are we prepared for what's going to happen? Prepare for the worst. And we weren't.”
Sund said Capitol Police protections are hobbled by a bureaucracy driven by partisan politics.
On January 6, 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was evacuated from the U.S. Capitol after rioters breached the wing door entrance to the Senate chamber.
Alexandra Pelosi/HBO via Rep. Barry Loudermilk
“People need to be aware that I was the only police chief in the United States who was restricted by law (1970 U.S. Code Title 2) from bringing in resources for my subordinates without the approval of the Capitol Police Board and congressional leadership,” Sund told The Blaze News.
“It is no wonder that Congress changed this law in December, just 11 months after January 6, 2021,” Sund said. “If my request for assistance had been approved on January 3, 2021, we would not be here today discussing this matter.”
Pelosi and her staff director, Jamie Fleet, attacked Sund in several new videos.
“We have completely failed.”
“I've never disliked Sund. He should have been gone a long time ago,” Pelosi said in a phone interview on her way to the Capitol on Jan. 7, 2021.
That same day, during a staff meeting on Capitol Hill, Pelosi said, “What a mess. What a mess,” and asked Fleet, “Do you trust Sund? What do you think of him?”
“We've always been skeptical of Mr. Sund,” Fleet said. “He has a terrible relationship with unions and I think he's not been particularly good at handling this coronavirus pandemic with workers.”
Sund told The Blaze News he has the support of the Capitol Police Labor Committee and that police departments across the country are using the USCP's pandemic preparedness plan as a model.
“We totally failed and we have to take some responsibility for not holding security forces accountable for what could have happened,” Pelosi said in another video clip.
“I think our focus should be on the president.”
As she walked down the stairs with other House members during the evacuation of the Capitol building after 2:15 p.m., Speaker Pelosi asked if the National Guard had been called in.
“Are they calling the National Guard? I just asked him to do that,” Pelosi said, after someone responded that a call had been made, to which Pelosi repeated, “So they called the National Guard? They didn't come?”
District of Columbia National Guard troops assembled within sight of the Capitol on the afternoon of January 6. Delays in Capitol Police Board approvals and bureaucratic wrangling at the Pentagon meant that troops did not arrive at the Capitol until 5:30 pm, when a massive law enforcement mutual aid response re-established control of the grounds.
As Speaker Pelosi and her staff prepared a public statement following the January 6 attacks, she made it a top priority to condemn Trump for what she called an “armed insurrection against America.”
That focus had to be placed ahead of the staffer's resignation announcement, according to the HBO video: As one staffer read a draft of a statement written for her, the speaker interrupted.
“Hold on a second,” she said in a car en route to the Capitol on Jan. 7. “Let me just say this: I think our focus has to be on the president. Let's not get distracted.”
A staff member interjected that incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had announced plans to fire Stenger as Senate floor leader. “I don't even know who that is,” she said, to which a staff member replied, “That's not important. I'm just saying heads are going to fly.”
Pelosi didn't shy away from the message she wanted to emphasize.
“I don't want to equate this with an insurrection or an impeachment or anything,” she said. “If they ask, I'll answer, but I'm not going to equate it. This is a diversionary tactic.”
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