(Washington) Never-before-released videos of one of the US state’s most senior figures, Nancy Pelosi, and other elected officials were released Thursday by the commission investigating the Capitol storming, showing how those officials frantically made phone calls during the attack for law enforcement reinforcements.
Posted at 6:55 p.m.
We see M.me Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, tense but keeping her composure in a secure location on January 6, 2021.
“There has to be a way to safeguard people’s sense that there is some security or some confidence that the state works and that we can elect the president of the United States,” says -she.
That day, elected officials gathered at Congressional headquarters in Washington to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. But a crowd of supporters of Donald Trump, for whom the ballot was “stolen” from the Republican, demonstrated in front of the Capitol.
Some of them stormed the Capitol, violence that sent shock waves around the world.
In the video, M.me Pelosi, stunned, is informed that elected officials have started donning gas masks.
Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, visibly angry, later said he was going to “call the f…minister” of Defense.
“Can you bring in the Maryland National Guard too?” we see him asking Christopher Miller, acting Minister of Defense at the time.
Then he calls Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.
“Why don’t you get the President to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, as part of your law enforcement duties?” “, he launches to him.
Nancy Pelosi is filmed calling Virginia Governor Ralph Northam while watching the events on television.
“Hello governor, it’s Nancy […]. They’re breaking windows, they say somebody got shot, it’s just awful and it’s all instigated by the President of the United States,” she told him.
The two Democrats are also seen at one point alongside Republican figures, discussing ways to get help.
The video shown Thursday was intercut with footage of the belligerent crowd and supporters of President Trump roaming the halls of Congress.
“Bring her to us! shouts a protester, in an apparent reference to Nancy Pelosi.