“I take the full responsibility.”
Those words by former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — the polar opposite of what she has publicly proclaimed for nearly 44 months — were uttered on Jan. 6 as she and Democratic colleagues watched the unfolding protests and violence at the U.S. Capitol on television, new video shows.
While claiming she takes responsibility in one video clip, she lashed out at former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund in another, putting the blame for Jan. 6 on his head.
Pelosi also claimed that she wanted the National Guard to “get rid of these people” on Jan. 6, although her office rejected Sund’s request for the Guard just days earlier.
Sund said if Pelosi had simply granted his Jan. 3 request for the National Guard, “I don’t think we would be here discussing this today.”
‘They should have had much more anticipation about the National Guard.’
“I am stunned by the repeated statements by Pelosi about there not being any National Guard deployed to the Capitol in advance of the attack on January 6,” Sund told Blaze News, “when it was her sergeant at arms for the House of Representatives who denied my request for support on January 3, and then again repeatedly for 71 minutes while we were under attack on January 6.”
The Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight released six new video clips from unaired documentary footage shot on Jan. 6 after Pelosi and other House leaders were evacuated from the Capitol to nearby Fort McNair.
The videos had been in the possession of the now-defunct Jan. 6 Select Committee but were not turned over to House Republicans in January 2023 as required by House rules, said U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight.
The Subcommittee on Oversight had to obtain the videos directly from Home Box Office Inc., Loudermilk said.
“For over three years, Nancy Pelosi has refused to take responsibility for her failure to secure the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021,” Loudermilk said.
“Instead, she has pushed the focus of the failure on President Trump. As speaker, she controlled House operations and security on the House side of the Capitol — which she acknowledges in this HBO footage.”
‘A complete victory for them’
Sitting with other House leaders watching news coverage from Fort McNair shown in one video, Pelosi said, “I don’t care what they say, they should have had much more anticipation about the National Guard.”
Pelosi’s statements are at odds with what the House sergeant at arms told Sund, who said he frantically tried to get approval for National Guard help practically from the time the crowds broke through the first police line at 12:53 p.m. on Jan. 6.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) discusses her response to the Jan. 6 violence on a ride to the Capitol on Jan. 7, 2021. Alexandra Pelosi / HBO via Rep. Barry Loudermilk
In one of the videos — filmed by Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra for an HBO documentary “Pelosi in the House” — the speaker was riding in a Capitol Police vehicle on the way to Fort McNair after top leaders were evacuated from the Capitol at 2:15 p.m. The House had just announced a recess due to the breach of the Senate wing door by rioters.
“They had to recess the session,” Pelosi said. “It’s a complete victory for them.”
As the Capitol Police vehicle navigated traffic with its siren blaring, Pelosi said, “Oh my God, I cannot believe the stupidity of this. And I take the full responsibility.”
Pelosi was visibly frustrated at being taken from the Capitol to a secure off-site location. “We going to stay here all day, the rest of our lives, or what?” she snapped. “We’re here until what? The National Guard decides to come and get rid of these people?”
‘We got to come up with another plan. Pelosi will never go for it.’
According to congressional testimony, Sund asked House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving more than an hour earlier for the Capitol Police Board to declare an emergency and approve a request for deployment of the National Guard.
“I was advised by Mr. Irving that he needed to run it up the chain of command,” Sund testified before the U.S. Senate in February 2021.
The House sergeant at arms is appointed by and reports to the speaker. Under rules in force at the time, the police chief could not even request National Guard help without permission from the Capitol Police Board. Voting members of the board include the House and Senate sergeants at arms and the architect of the Capitol. Sund was an ex-officio member.
Sund’s initial request to Irving and the Capitol Police Board for National Guard help was made at 1:09 p.m. on Jan. 6. Sund said he made repeated calls for updates from Irving and was told a decision was forthcoming. Pelosi did approve Irving’s request to go to the Pentagon for Guard help. That decision was relayed to Sund from the Police Board at 2:10 p.m., three minutes before the Capitol was breached at the Senate wing door entrance.
Sund told Loudermilk’s subcommittee on Sept. 19, 2023, that he requested the National Guard three days ahead of Jan. 6, but that request was turned down by Irving because Irving said Pelosi would “never go for it.”
According to Sund, Irving suggested he speak to Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger about it on Jan. 3, 2021. Stenger, who died on June 27, 2022, later told Sund that Irving had called to tip him off that the chief was on his way over, Sund testified.
“And he told me Paul Irving had called him ahead of time and said: ‘Sund came here looking for the National, asking for the National Guard. We got to come up with another plan. Pelosi will never go for it.’”
“I was floored by him saying that,” Sund testified.
President Trump authorized use of up to 20,000 members of the National Guard during a meeting at the White House on Jan. 3, 2021, according to Kash Patel, a former senior Trump aide who attended the meeting. Under federal law, the president cannot order the Guard’s use for domestic law enforcement. The president can only authorize. In the case of the District of Columbia, either Mayor Muriel Bowser or federal law enforcement could have requested Guard deployment.
In another video, shot while Pelosi walked to the subway under the Capitol grounds during evacuation, she said to her Capitol Police protective detail, “Over and over again. Are we prepared for what could happen? Consider the worst. And we didn’t.”
Sund said he was hamstrung by a bureaucratic structure that left Capitol Police protection open to partisan politics.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi evacuates the U.S. Capitol after rioters breached the Senate Wing Door entrance on Jan. 6, 2021. Alexandra Pelosi / HBO via Rep. Barry Loudermilk
“People need to realize that I was the only chief of police in the U.S. who was restricted by law (2 U.S. Code 1970) from bringing in resources for my men and women without the approval of the Capitol Police Board and congressional leadership,” Sund told Blaze News.
“No wonder Congress changed this law in December of 2021, only 11 months after January 6,” Sund said. “If my request for support had been approved on January 3, 2021, I don’t think we would be here discussing this today.”
Pelosi and her staff director, Jamie Fleet, attacked Sund in several of the new videos.
‘We have totally failed’
Riding to the Capitol on Jan. 7, 2021, Pelosi said during a phone call, “I never liked Sund. I think he should have been gone a long time ago.”
During a meeting at the Capitol with staff that same day, Pelosi said, “What a mess. What a mess,” then asked Fleet, “Do you have any confidence in Sund? What do you think of him?”
“We’ve always been skeptical of Sund,” Fleet said. “He has terrible relationships with the union. He has particularly been, I think, not great handling this coronavirus pandemic with the workforce.”
Sund told Blaze News he was endorsed by the United States Capitol Police Labor Committee, and police departments from around the country have used USCP’s pandemic plans as a model.
In another video clip, Pelosi said, “We have totally failed. We have to take some responsibility for not holding the security accountable for what could have happened.”
‘I think our focus has to be on the president.’
While walking down a stairway with other House leaders after 2:15 p.m. as the Capitol was evacuated, Pelosi asked whether the National Guard had been called.
“Are they calling the National Guard? I asked him to do that earlier,” Pelosi said. When someone answered that a call had been made, Pelosi repeated, “And did they call the National Guard? And they didn’t come?”
National Guard troops from the District of Columbia were staged within sight of the Capitol the afternoon of Jan. 6. Due to delayed Capitol Police Board approval and bureaucratic wrangling at the Pentagon, troops didn’t arrive at the Capitol until 5:30 p.m., after a massive law enforcement mutual-aid response regained control of the grounds.
As Pelosi worked with her staff to craft public statements she was to release in the wake of Jan. 6, she made it a top priority to blame Trump for what she called “an armed insurrection against America.”
That focus had to come ahead of any announcements of staff resignations, according to the HBO videos. As a staff member read the draft of a statement being written for her, the speaker interrupted.
“Now wait, wait a minute,” she said, speaking on a ride to the Capitol on Jan. 7. “Let me just say this. I think our focus has to be on the president. Let’s not divert ourself.”
A staff member interjected that incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had announced plans to fire Stenger, the Senate sergeant at arms. “I don’t even know who that is,” she said, to which a staff member replied, “It’s immaterial. Heads are rolling is what we’re saying.”
Pelosi was not deterred on the message to be emphasized.
“I don’t want to have it on a par with the insurrection and the impeachment and the rest of that,” she said. “If they ask, I will respond, but I’m not doing it on a par. It’s a diversionary tactic.”
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