CNN —
The morning after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi made it clear that she wanted to focus attention on President Donald Trump’s departure.
As Pelosi drove to the Capitol, her senior aide Drew Hammill was reading a draft of an opening statement to her by phone, which included calling for the resignation of Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund. Pelosi stopped him.
“I think our focus has to be on the president. Let’s not distract from it,” Pelosi said in footage filmed by her daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, that was presented to Congress by HBO and obtained by CNN.
When Hammill told her the media was focusing on the police chief, Pelosi responded, “I don’t want to equate this with an insurrection or an impeachment or anything like that.”
For decades, Alexandra Pelosi has had documentaries released on HBO, which is owned by CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. A documentary about Pelosi’s mother was released in 2022.
Newly released videos provide further insight into the Speaker’s movements and real-time reactions to the storming of the Capitol, and the latest footage provided to Congress also shows Nancy Pelosi evacuating the Capitol building and taking refuge in Fort McNair on January 5, 6, and 7.
The footage is a fresh reminder that the history of January 6th remains contested nearly four years later. Republicans in Congress have previously sought to release footage and security video taken by House Speaker Alexandra Pelosi to undermine the Democratic-led January 6th Commission, exonerate President Trump, and instead blame her for the security failures that led to the breach of the Capitol.
President Trump and his allies in Congress have repeatedly blamed Speaker Pelosi, but she is not in charge of security at the Capitol — that is the responsibility of the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the U.S. Capitol Police and approves requests for National Guard assistance.
Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia is leading the GOP effort to investigate the 2021 attack on the Capitol, including a Democratic-led select committee investigating the actions of the previous Congress and the security failures that day. Rep. Loudermilk’s committee alleges that the Jan. 6 commission hid from the public witness recordings that undermined some of the most shocking allegations about the riot.
The fight over January 6th is still playing out in the courts. On Tuesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed an amended indictment against the former president in an attempt to revive the January 6th case, which had been stalled following a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
When asked by CNN about the new footage presented to Congress, Alexandra Pelosi replied, “I hope you like this shot backwards and in high heels. If you want background, watch Pelosi in the House. It’s on HBO!”
The clips, totaling just under an hour, show the speaker and staff discussing calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment at a press conference, as well as Pelosi leaving the Capitol in her car in the early hours of January 7 after Biden was finally certified just after 3:30 a.m.
“I’m just disgusted by what Mr. Trump did to our Capitol and our country today,” Pelosi said when asked how she felt about the end of her relationship with Trump. “He has to pay a price for that.”
The footage also details Pelosi’s hasty evacuation from the U.S. Capitol to Fort McNair along with other Democratic leaders, reinforcing earlier footage showing congressional leaders trying to quell the rioters and complete the certification of the 2020 election on January 6th.
“I don’t look at this as a good idea,” Pelosi said after being informed the Capitol building would have to be evacuated.
As he was escorted by security and senior staff from the chamber to an SUV, the speaker lamented that the rioters appeared to have achieved their goal by delaying the formal election certification process.
“If they stop the process, they will be successful in blocking the certification of the president of the United States,” Pelosi said.
She also questioned why security officials failed to predict the level of violence that occurred on January 6 and why the National Guard was not deployed sooner.
“How many times have members of Congress asked, ‘Are you prepared? Are you ready?’ They’re not prepared for the worst,” Pelosi said. “Are we calling in the National Guard now? They should have been here from the beginning. I don’t understand. Why are we empowering our people like this without being prepared?”
“I feel responsible,” Pelosi told chief of staff Teri McCullough, after repeatedly asking if the National Guard would be sent, adding, “Teri, we are responsible. We have had zero accountability for what was going on there, and we should be. This is absurd.”
Pelosi said the National Guard “clearly did not know” what was going to happen on January 6, adding: “I take responsibility for not allowing them to do more to prepare. That was foolish.”
“Shame on you,” the speaker said as he headed toward Fort McNair.
Footage from Jan. 7 shows Pelosi giving a graphic critique of the Capitol Police chief to her staff: “I’ve never liked Sund. He should have been gone a long time ago,” Pelosi said, while also explaining why she didn’t want to include that point in her prepared remarks about Trump.
When Speaker Pelosi arrived at the Capitol on the morning of January 7, she instructed her staff to coordinate her remarks regarding the impeachment of President Trump.
“We can’t say we will impeach him. We can only say we will. We don’t know because we don’t have all the Blue Dogs on our side on this issue,” Pelosi said.
Speaker Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer initially called on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump from office, but when he did not, he moved ahead with impeachment proceedings a week later.
Some clips show Pelosi huddling with senior aides ahead of a press conference that day. As they discuss how to handle House Speaker Paul Irving, Pelosi calls a senior aide and asks him to tell him she plans to mention Irving’s resignation at the next press conference. In another clip, the aide returns and confirms that Irving has offered to resign.
But Pelosi’s harshest criticism is aimed at Trump.
“We have domestic enemies in the White House,” she says, checking her comments with staff. “I’m going to be vocal about this.”
