Pelosi Rips Trump For Not Sending Troops to Stop January 6 Attack: ‘He Took Joy In Not Doing It’

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) testified before her fellow Democrats on Tuesday and fumed at President Donald Trump for continuing to claim that she blocked him from sending the National Guard to end the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump’s White House put out a website on Tuesday full of historical revisionism about that day, including blaming the violence on the Capitol Police. The White House website includes a paragraph that reads:

Video and audio recordings, including unaired HBO footage from her own daughter, show Nancy Pelosi repeatedly acknowledging responsibility for the catastrophic security failures—admitting “We have totally failed” and “I take full responsibility” for not having the National Guard pre-deployed, despite intelligence warnings and President Trump’s offers of troops that were ignored under her leadership as Speaker.

Pelosi responded while testifying before the reconvened January 6th House Committee, which Republicans refused to join.

“I could never have had the idea that a president of the United States would incite an insurrection on the Capitol of the U.S.—this symbol of democracy throughout the world—on the Constitution of the United States, which he took and we all took an oath to uphold, on the Congress of the United States, who that day had the constitutional responsibility to accept the results, to certify the results of the election,” Pelosi said, adding:

The list goes on and on. And today, that president who incited that insurrection continues to lie about what happened that day. On my way over here, I saw on TV that he was claiming that we did not ask for the National Guard. I thank Representative Hensarling, as well as Elaine Luria, for setting the record straight, and other testimony that you have heard here. For over three hours, we begged him to send the National Guard. He never did it. He took joy in not doing it. He was savoring it.

And right now, he was saying on TV today, “I wanted to send it; they just wouldn’t do it.” His own Secretary of Defense—acting Secretary of Defense—testified under oath against what the president is saying today. Maybe not in public, but under oath. God forbid that they ever put this president under oath. His people know never to do that, because who knows what will happen. But what he’s saying today, still lying about it, is an insult to the American people.

Good-thinking people in our country—and I believe in the goodness of the American people. Believing in their goodness is what gives us hope that we can move on from this even stronger. His lies that he continues to tell are an insult to the courage of our founders, the beautiful vision they had of this country.

Pelosi referred to acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller telling the January 6th Committee under oath in 2022, “I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature.” Notably, the president does not need permission from the House speaker to deploy the DC National Guard, which is solely under the president’s command.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!