The Speaker of the House continues to try to find a way for the House and Senate to regroup despite the turmoil
New footage from the January 6 riots at the US Capitol shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calmly trying to take control of the situation as she takes refuge in Fort McNair, two miles south of the Capitol. “There has to be some way,” he told his colleagues, “we can maintain the feeling that people have security or trust that the government can function and that you can elect the president of the United States.”
Then an unidentified voice interrupts with worrying news: MPs on the DPR floor are starting to put on tear gas masks in preparation for abuse. Pelosi asked the woman to repeat what she said. "Do you believe this?" Pelosi said to another Democratic leader, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.
The footage was around 2:45 p.m., when rioters were already interfering with plans to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. It would be hours before the building was safe. Never-before-seen video footage played Thursday by the House elected committee investigating last year's unrest shows how Pelosi and other leaders, including Republican ally Donald Trump, responded to the uprising.
The footage provides a rare picture of the real-time reactions of the most powerful members of Congress as they scramble to garner support from all parts of government, including from institutions that seem ill-prepared for chaos, and vent anger over a president whose behavior which they feel have endangered their lives. In the video, Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer negotiate with the governor and defense officials to try to bring the national guard to the Capitol as police are brutally beaten outside the building.
The deployment of the guards was delayed for hours as Trump just stood by and did little to stop the violence of his supporters. Footage recorded by Pelosi's daughter Alexandra, a documentary filmmaker, was shown during the committee's 10th session as an illustration of the president's inaction in the face of the grave danger posed by rioters.
"As the president watched the bloody attack unfold on Fox News from his dining room, members of Congress and other administration officials stepped into the giant leadership vacuum created by the president's cold and steady passivity that day," said Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin, a committee member. member.
That concern is not theoretical. It was around 3 p.m., when a Trump loyalist outside Pelosi's office raised her finger and shouted, "Get her out now!" and, "We'll be in if you don't take him out!" the speaker was in a room with Schumer, who said: "I'll call secretary effin from the DoD."
As violence continues in the Capitol – “Officer down, wake him up,” a voice can be heard in one of the clips shown by the committee – leaders keep calling from Fort McNair. One went to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam about possible help from the Virginia national guard, with Pelosi recounting events based on what she saw from television news footage. An even more furious call was followed by Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general at the time. Days earlier, and unbeknownst to Congress or the public at the time, Rosen and his colleagues had fended off Trump's attempts to replace him with a subordinate who wanted to challenge the election results.
However, that day, Schumer and Pelosi sat shoulder to shoulder on the sofa and expressed their frustration to the country's top law enforcement officials. Throughout the recording, Pelosi maintains her composure, barely raising her voice as she urges Rosen, and then vice president Mike Pence and others, to send aid and try to find a way for the House and Senate to regroup. "They broke the law in many ways," Pelosi told Rosen. "And frankly, mostly at the instigation of the president of the United States."
Schumer also considered: “Well, why don't you ask the president to have them leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibilities? A public statement that they should all leave." It was only in the evening that the Capitol would be cleaned up and work would resume. The news that Congress would be able to regroup to finish its work on passing the election results was conveyed to congressional leaders not by Trump but by Pence.
The Jan. 6 House committee voted unanimously on Thursday to summon Trump, demanding his personal testimony as it unveiled a shocking new video from his close aides describing his multi-part plan to overturn his 2020 election defeat that led to his supporters' attacks on the Capitol.
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