In Washington On the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, expressed her desire for then-President Donald Trump to visit the building so that she could “knock him out.”
On January 6, footage taken for HBO and initially obtained by CNN by Pelosi’s daughter, documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, captured this moment as well as many others. It was broadcast a few hours after other snippets from the video were shown during Thursday’s ninth meeting by the House select committee looking into the attack.
In response to Trump’s speech at the White House ellipse earlier in the day, the speaker joked, “Tell him if he comes here, we’re coming to the White House.”
In another video, Pelosi can be heard speaking to her staff as the Capitol’s gathering grows. It contains a message from Terri McCullough, Pelosi’s director of staff, informing the speaker that the Secret Service had ‘dissuaded’ Trump from visiting Capitol Hill to rally with his followers.
According to McCullough, “They informed him they don’t have the resources to defend him here.” Therefore, he is not coming right now, but that could change.
Pelosi replies, “I hope he comes. I’m tempted to punch him. My time has come. I’ve been anticipating this. for trespassing on the grounds of the Capitol. I want to punch him out, and then I’m going to be happy and go to jail.
In the video that CNN aired, additional scenes portraying Pelosi and other congressional leaders scurrying for assistance while the Capitol was under attack matched those that were played at the hearing.
As protesters attacked the Capitol, congressional leaders were seen in the montage that was shown during the session asking for assistance from governors, the acting secretary of defense, and the acting attorney general.
The clip shows then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sitting with Pelosi around 3 p.m. in an unidentified room and saying, “I’m going to call up the effing secretary of DoD.” On Schumer’s flip phone, the two Democratic leaders could be seen phoning Christopher Miller, who was serving as acting defense secretary at the time, and demanding a “huge” reaction.
Additionally, Pelosi was heard asking Virginia Governor Ralph Northam whether he might send his state’s National Guard troops to the Capitol in the video at the hearing. She informed Northam that House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, had asked Gov. Larry Hogan for the same thing. Additionally, Pelosi and Schumer were spotted speaking on the phone with Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general, pleading with him to tell Trump’s supporters to stop.
“Mr. Attorney General, in the course of your law enforcement duties, why don’t you get the president to urge them to leave the Capitol — a public statement they should all leave?” stated Schumer.
The video also showed Pelosi talking over the phone twice that day with Vice President Mike Pence on how they may resume certifying the results of the 2020 election.
Pelosi, Schumer, and other leaders can be seen debating whether to call the Congress back together at Fort McNair and continue the proceedings right away or wait potentially “days” until the Capitol could be secured in new video obtained by NBC News and not displayed at the session. Earlier, Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, had stated that he wanted members to return to the Capitol as soon as possible to demonstrate that the insurrectionists had failed.
As they dug down in a secure area at Fort McNair, Pelosi addressed her colleagues politicians, “The overwhelming thing we have to do is affirm the administration.” “That weighs against whether we do it here down the hall or in the Capitol.”
Members eventually came back to the Capitol just after 7 o’clock to complete the procedure.
Throughout his presidency, Pelosi and Trump had a very tense relationship, which includes the time in 2019 when she and other Democratic leaders left a meeting with Trump at the White House after he had what Pelosi called a “meltdown.” Pelosi made headlines in 2020 when she notoriously tore up a copy of Trump’s third State of the Union speech.
