House G.O.P. Releases Jan. 6 Videos of Pelosi, Seeking to Shift Blame From Trump
House Republicans on Wednesday made their latest attempt to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, releasing a video compilation that sought to shift blame away from former President Donald J. Trump and onto former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was pursued that day by a violent mob of Trump supporters.
The Republican-controlled House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight released video clips, some previously unseen, shot for an HBO documentary about Ms. Pelosi. In them she is shown on the day of the riot venting her rage about the rampage at the Capitol, criticizing security officials for failing to anticipate and prevent it, and saying she felt responsible for their failure.
In the recordings, Ms. Pelosi rails against Mr. Trump and his role in firing up his supporters who stormed the Capitol, but also repeatedly suggests that she and her staff should have pushed the Capitol Police harder to make sure they were better prepared as Mr. Trump summoned thousands of his supporters to Washington to protest the transfer of power from the Trump administration to the Biden administration.
“I don’t care what they say — they should have had much more anticipation about the National Guard,” Ms. Pelosi says at one point during the footage.
At another point, she says: “I can’t believe the stupidity. I take full responsibility.”
In yet another clip, Ms. Pelosi hints that Capitol Police officials might have deliberately failed to prepare enough, perhaps because they were sympathetic to Mr. Trump and his supporters.
“They thought these people would act civilized?” Ms. Pelosi said, sitting in the back of a car as her security detail whisked her away from an overrun Capitol to safety. “They thought these people gave a