Pelosi Accepts Responsibility for National Guard Mix-up

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., conceded that she should have had the National Guard better prepared leading up to the events of January 6, 2021, stating, “I take responsibility.”

Pelosi’s remarks were recorded on that day as she was taken to safety at Fort McNair during the Capitol Hill riots. The recording, captured by Pelosi’s daughter and filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, was published Monday by the House Oversight Committee via a release.

“You’re going to ask me, in the middle of the thing when they’ve already breached the inaugural stuff, ‘Should we call … the National Guard?'” Pelosi asked her chief of staff Terri McCullough while they were in an SUV. “Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with? …

“And I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more,” Nancy Pelosi admitted in the 42-second video, as reported by Politico here.

The clip, part of 45 minutes of footage from that day filmed by Alexandra Pelosi, was not disclosed during the House select committee probe into January 6. HBO released the footage following a request from the House Administration’s subcommittee, according to Politico.

Although Pelosi and Democrats have criticized former President Donald Trump for not instructing the National Guard to the Capitol during the riots, House Republicans issued a report in December 2022 claiming that Pelosi and Democratic leadership were more concerned about “optics” following the 2020 Black Lives M

atters protests than increasing security at the Capitol prior to January 6.

This sentiment was echoed in private and public hearings with the current January 6 subcommittee. Senior Army officials revealed that they were hindered from responding to the riots due to concerns about the “optics” of deploying the Guard, as reported by Politico.