Nancy Pelosi referred to former President Donald Trump as a “home enemy” in a newly-released video of the previous Speaker of the Home the day after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. The footage was turned over to Congress by HBO and obtained by CBS Information.
The footage reveals the previous Home chief getting ready for a press convention together with her staffers on Jan. 7. Within the footage, Pelosi plans to publicly name for the resignation of U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund within the aftermath of the assault, but additionally addressed Trump’s function within the assault.
“There’s a home enemy within the White Home,” Pelosi says. “Let’s not mince phrases about this.” She didn’t use that line when addressing the press later that day.
Within the early morning hours of Jan. 7, after Congress licensed Joe Biden as winner of the 2020 presidential election, Pelosi is requested how she feels about “being performed with Donald Trump.”
“I simply really feel sick for what he did to the Capitol and to the nation as we speak,” Pelosi responded. “He is gotta pay a value for that.”
HBO
Trump has been extensively criticized for his function on Jan. 6, when he delivered an handle to his supporters close to the White Home within the hours earlier than the assault and posted a video calling for peace hours after the assault started. Trump has been accused of making an attempt to overturn the 2020 election outcomes, and particular counsel Jack Smith, reindicted the previous president on Tuesday on fees of resisting the peaceable switch of energy on Jan. 6.
The video additionally reveals Pelosi requesting an inventory of members of Trump’s Cupboard, in her effort to publicly name on them to invoke the twenty fifth Modification to take away Trump from workplace and she or he says in one other clip that “members need impeachment.” Trump was later impeached by the Home however acquitted in a Senate trial weeks later.
Extra video footage reveals Pelosi and her employees leaving the Capitol for Fort McNair, the place congressional leaders regrouped because the assault unfolded. She expressed frustration that rioters have been capable of cease the certification of the vote.
“I do not agree with taking me out of the chair,” Pelosi mentioned, referring to her function as Speaker. “But when they stopped the proceedings, they’ll have succeeded in stopping the validation of the presidency of the US.”
As she rides away from the Capitol, Pelosi questions the safety planning for Jan. 6, together with asking why the Nationwide Guard had not been known as to answer the assault earlier. The Home Jan. 6 committee in 2022 revealed Trump waited three hours earlier than urging rioters to go away or be peaceable, and his administration delayed deploying the Nationwide Guard. However some Republicans have tried to place the blame on Pelosi herself for safety shortcomings, and a GOP-led subcommittee has been releasing different tranches of video from that day.
“We now have accountability,” mentioned Pelosi. “We didn’t have any accountability for what was occurring there and we should always have. That is ridiculous.”
Whereas using within the automobile, Pelosi says that though she has “by no means been a fan of Sund,” “I believe our focus needs to be on the President.” Pelosi known as for Sund’s resignation later that day.
Pelosi mentioned she takes “accountability” for not having safety “simply ready for extra.” “Disgrace on us,” she added.
Kaia Hubbard and
contributed to this report.