In a previously unreleased video, congressional leaders can be seen pleading for assistance from governors, the acting secretary of defense, and the acting attorney general as protesters attack the Capitol on January 6.
The video montage started with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, leaving the Capitol at 2:23 p.m. ET while being surrounded by security personnel. According to a source close to NBC News, Alexandra Pelosi, Pelosi’s daughter, shot the video.
“We have got to get to finish the proceedings or else they will have a complete victory,” Pelosi said to someone, who wasn’t identified, on her cellphone.
“There has to be some way we can maintain the sense that people have that there is some security or some confidence that government can function and that you can elect the president of the United States,” Pelosi says later in the clip, with House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., standing next to her.
The folks who were still on the House floor were putting on tear gas masks in preparation for a breach, Pelosi was then informed. Do you think this is true? Saying to Clyburn, Pelosi.
The following video displayed a group of Trump backers in front of what looked to be Pelosi’s office next to the House floor. One of the women cried, “If you don’t bring her out, we’re coming in!”
At 3 p.m., while seated next to Pelosi in a different, unnamed location, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, remarked, “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, the acting defense secretary at the time, and demanding a “huge” reaction.
Additionally, Pelosi was seen asking Virginia Governor Ralph Northam whether he might send his state’s National Guard troops to the Capitol in the video. She informed Northam that House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, had asked Maryland Governor Larry Hogan for the same thing.
On the phone with Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Schumer and Pelosi were also spotted pleading with him to tell President Donald Trump to cancel his supporters.
“Why don’t you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility — a public statement they should all leave?” Schumer said.
