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Nancy Pelosi takes responsibility for lack of security at the Capitol on Jan. 6

In new footage included in an upcoming HBO documentary, the former speaker of the House of Representatives asserts that they should have asked for military help.

(Committee on House Administration)

(Committee on House Administration)

Juan Peña
Published by

New footage of the moments that followed the January 6 riots have emerged in which the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, takes the blame for the lack of security at the Capitol.

The images were recorded by Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra, while they were both in the back of a vehicle. They were released within the framework of a new documentary produced for HBO, a platform owned by the Warner Bros. conglomerate. Said audiovisual material was also transferred to the Republican commission that investigates the responsibility of elected officials on January 6.

In the recordings, Nancy Pelosi asserts that the National Guard should have been present during the protests that gathered in front of the US Congress and ended with protesters storming the building.

"We have a responsibility, Terry," Pelosi is heard saying to her chief of staff, Terry McCullough, as they are being taken away in a vehicle from the Capitol. "We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous."

"You’re gonna 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?" said the former House Speaker. McCullough explains that "they thought they had sufficient resources," an answer that does not satisfy Pelosi.

In other images revealed on the same occasion, Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate since 2021, is seen speaking on the phone with a senior Pentagon official. According to MSNBC, it was Ryan McCarthy, Secretary of the Army. Schumer angrily demands that the secretary request that then-acting President Donald Trump ask protesters to leave the Capitol.

These statements arise when accusations persist between one side and the other about who was really to blame for the lack of security at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Republicans have assured that Nancy Pelosi, above the Capitol Police Board, had sufficient power to decree exceptional measures in case of urgency. However, Democrats insist that the interim Administration refused to send in the National Guard.

Trump's actions on and around January 6 are at the center of a criminal investigation led by special prosecutor Jack Smith. Smith accused Trump of conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in allegedly inspiring protesters to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Pelosi corrects herself months later

The Democrat gave an interview to Bill Maher weeks later in which she explained her statements in the previous video.

Pelosi maintained, "I'm never going to take responsibility for [former President] Donald Trump," claiming that it was the then-sitting president who was to blame for the events on Capitol Hill on January 6.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was modified to include Pelosi's statements to Maher.

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