The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol convened Thursday for what could be their final hearing. As with their previous public hearings, the committee covered a lot of ground. But a significant portion of this hearing focused on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and what she was doing leading up to and during the Capitol riot.
The committee presented a terrifying video showing rioters roaming the hallway, taunting and calling for Pelosi like something out of a horror movie. “Where are you Nancy? We’re looking for you,” you can hear one rioter yell in the video.
In that video, we see Pelosi’s staff dash into a conference room and barricade themselves inside. Just a few minutes later, the crowd of rioters pass just outside, with one stopping to repeatedly bash his body against the barricaded exterior door until he breaks through. They do not make it through the second interior door but we know that crowd did breach Pelosi’s office, and proceeded to ransack and defile that room, taking her laptop and various papers and smearing excrement on the walls while she and her staff were hiding elsewhere.
Additional video shows Pelosi doing what Trump refused to do and calling Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, asking for him to send assistance in the form of state police and National Guard forces. She also calls Mike Pence and expresses concern for his safety, and together she and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer call acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, asking him to call on Trump to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol.
Throughout all of that turmoil, Pelosi’s composure is remarkable. She remains calm and authoritative in all the footage, which was reportedly filmed by her daughter, documentarian Alexandra Pelosi. The closest Pelosi gets to losing her cool came in one fantastic clip that I can’t stop watching on a loop.
“I hope he comes, I wanna punch him out.”
The moment I can’t stop watching appears to come from a bit earlier that day, as the crowd is starting to march from the rally to the Capitol but before the building has been breached. Pelosi’s chief of staff, Terri McCullough, tells her that Trump wanted to come to the Capitol with his supporters but was dissuaded. “So at the moment he is not coming but that could change,” McCullough says.
Pelosi’s eyes narrow and she replies: “I hope he comes, I wanna punch him out.”
“I’ve been waiting for this,” she continues, holding up a tense palm like it’s itching to slap. “For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m gonna punch him out and I’m gonna go to jail and I’m gonna be happy.”
Pelosi has literally never been more likable than in that moment.
(image: Noam Galai/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
