Nancy Pelosi admits regret at not calling in National Guard ahead of J6 in newly released video

In a newly released video, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) admitted regret that she did not request the National Guard ahead of January 6, 2021. She revealed that members of Congress had reached out to her prior to that day to ask "are we prepared?"

Video footage turned over this week to House Republican investigators, per Just the News, showed Pelosi and her entourage fleeing the Capitol through a tunnel on the afternoon of Jan. 6 as she said, “We're calling the National Guard now? They should have been here to start out.”
 

The footage was taken by Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra, who was filiming her documentary that day. She put it all together for an HBO documentary called "The Insurrectionist Next Door," shot on January 6. The comments from Pelosi were outtakes from the documentary and were only recently turned over to the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee. That committee is chaired Barry Loudermilk, who took the helm of the congressional investigation of Jan. 6 security failures when Republicans took control of the House in January 2023.

Pelosi had previously insisted that she had no responsibility for security arrangements on Jan. 6, even though Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, the head House security officer reported to her.

In the video, Pelosi also demands Irving resign immediately and she admits that lawmakers had repeatedly pressured her before Jan 6 to make sure there was enough security. Pelosi said, “How many times did members ask, are we prepared? Are we prepared? We're not prepared for the worst.” Later in the video she added, "We will have totally failed. And we've got to take some responsibility."

It had previously been reported that President Donald Trump’s outgoing Pentagon leadership team offered the National Guard to Congress via the Capitol Police four days ahead of Jan. 6 but that offer was denied by Deputy Police Chief Sean Gallagher on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021.

Yet even as the rejection was given, the Capitol Police were beginning to change their security assessment. Capitol Police already had in hand information that fringe groups were talking about blocking tunnels leading to the Capitol.

In 2023, ex-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund told Congress he wanted the National Guard in advance of Jan. 6 but was denied permission to ask for them by security officials reporting to Pelosi and incoming Senate Leader Chuck Schumer.

The new footage also showed Pelosi planning to blame Trump for the riot as she returned to the building. “I just feel sick about what he did to the Capitol and the country today,” Pelosi said as she left in an SUV after order was restored to the Capitol. “He’s got to pay a price for that.”

In June, more of the documentary footage was released by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, which showed Pelosi saying that she bears responsibility for not stopping the actions of the mob. "We have responsibility, Terri," Pelosi was heard saying, referencing her Chief of Staff Terri McCullough. "We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have."

"This is ridiculous. You’re going to ask me in the middle of the thing when they’ve already breached the inaugural stuff that should we call the Capitol police — I mean the National Guard? Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?" she said from the backseat of an SUV while fleeing the Capitol. Someone said off camera, "They thought that they had sufficient resources," to which Pelosi responded, "They clearly didn’t know. And I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more."

In 2022, House Republicans released a report demonstrating through texts and emails that Pelosi’s office was directly involved in the planning of security for the US Capitol that failed during the Jan. 6 riot.