WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened a knockout blow to then-President Donald Trump if he joined his supporters on their march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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“If he comes, I’m going to punch him out,” she said in previously unseen video footage that aired on CNN Thursday night. “I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds, I’m going to punch him out. And I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.”
It was actually Pelosi who faced the risk of violence in the hours that followed, as an angry, armed mob hunted her in Capitol hallways, ransacked her office, stole her laptop, smeared feces on the wall and delayed the peaceful transfer of power.
Videos filmed by documentarian Alexandra Pelosi, the speaker’s daughter, showed Democratic and Republican leaders taking refuge at Fort McNair and making frantic calls, practically begging federal officials for help. They were filling a vacuum of leadership left by Trump while he watched the violence unfold on television and failed to act for nearly four hours, according to testimony from multiple witnesses.
Other video highlights include:
- A conversation between then Vice President Mike Pence and Pelosi, the top two federal officials in the line of succession after the president
- The top Republican and Democrat in the Senate – Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. – begging the Army to send troops to the Capitol, with Schumer saying “life and limb” were at stake
- Pelosi’s calls to governors and House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer trying to get county police to respond to the Capitol from his home state of Maryland
- The bipartisan push from top Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to finish the count and ensure the lawful election of Joe Biden was certified.
“I’m going to call the effin secretary of DOD,” Schumer said on Jan. 6, 2021, as he poked numbers on a phone to dial acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.
Congressional leaders also called acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and governors in Maryland and Virginia.
January 6 hearing recap:Panel subpoenas Trump, shows new video of Pelosi as mob attacked
“Pretend it was the Pentagon,” Pelosi pleaded on the phone, as rioters hunted her in the hallways of the Capitol and breached her office. “Pretend it was the White House.”
She was at first concerned that day about certifying Biden’s election victory.
“If they stop the proceedings, we will have totally failed,” she said, referring to the armed mob that broke into the Capitol. “We have got to finish the proceedings, or else they will have a complete victory.”
That process was delayed for hours.
As the situation outside the Capitol and in its halls grew more dire, Pelosi’s comments shifted with the moment.
“They’re breaking windows and going in, obviously ransacking our offices and all the rest of that. That’s nothing,” Pelosi said. “The concern we have about personal safety just transcends everything.”
Her concerns were on strong display as she had a phone conversation with Pence, who was hiding out in a loading dock beneath the Capitol.
“I worry about you being in that Capitol room,” she told him on the phone. “Don’t let anybody know where you are.”
Democrats were joined in the video by Republican Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, and Sens. McConnell, Chuck Grassley and John Thune. Together they called the Defense department and asked for troops to be deployed to the Capitol.
While on the phone with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, McConnell urged him to send troops to the Capitol.
They need to get there “in one hell of a hurry, you understand?” McConnell said.
“We need them there now, whoever you got,” Schumer said.
Additional unseen footage from Alexandra Pelosi will air on CNN at 8 p.m. Friday.
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Candy Woodall is a Congress reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at cwoodall@usatoday.com or on Twitter at @candynotcandace.
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