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Staff at Nancy Pelosi’s household hid under a table as rioters attempted to break down a door to the office they were in, Pelosi told 60 Minutes in an interview that aired Sunday night. President Pelosi was in the House during the Electoral College vote count on the afternoon of January 6 when rioters urged on by President Trump began to pass through the barricades, clash with the police and enter the Capitol in a day that shook the country.
“When the demonstrators attacked the Capitol, even before arriving at these gates, the Capitol police took me off the podium”, Pelosi told 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl. “And I was worried because I said, ‘No, I want to be here.’ And they said, “Well, no, you have to go.” I said, “No, I’m not leaving.” They said, ‘No, you have to go.’ “
Police, guns drawn, kept the invaders off the floor of the House, but from across the Capitol in the Senate, the crowd supporting Trump was able to enter the room. The scenes were shocking to watch.
“I think there was – universally agreed that what happened was a terrible and terrible violation of this – of the Capitol, of the first branch of government, the legislative branch, by the President of the United States.” , Pelosi said.
The crowd was free to roam the halls of Congress, with a group moving to President Pelosi’s office suite. They smashed one of the front office doors walked through another door – behind which Pelosi’s staff huddled in terror.
“The staff walked under the table, barricaded the door, turned off the lights and fell silent in the dark,” Pelosi said. “Under the table for two and a half hours.”
During this time in hiding, they listened to the invaders knocking on that door – as could be heard on a recording from one of the staff members’ phones. Across the hall, a group broke into the speaker’s private office.
“See what they did to the mirror over there? Glass was everywhere. They took a computer and everything,” Pelosi said. “And then the office they were in was right there that they smeared that way, feet on the desk and stuff.”
The man who was seen in the photo with his feet on the speaker’s desk was arrested on Friday. And the FBI is investigating whether any of the agitators – some seen in ballistic vests, with zip ties – intended to kidnap or kill lawmakers or their employees.
“The proof now is that – that this was a well planned and organized group with leadership, guidance and direction. And the direction was to go out and get the people,” Pelosi said. They said vocally, ‘Where is the speaker? We know she has staff. They are here somewhere. We will find them. “”
While all of this was going on, President Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, from an unknown location, called on the president to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol.
“The president said, ‘Go home’, but the election went on, you know, with its lies, its false statements, its illusion of having won in a landslide in this election,” he said. explained Pelosi.
“So eventually the protesters were kicked out,” 60 Minutes’s Lesley Stahl told Pelosi. “And you almost came back to session. How did that happen?”
“I know from Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell that there was a consensus that we should come back. There were suggestions that it might take too long, and we should do it in the place no. disclosed, ”Pelosi said. “But there was a general belief that this – from the strength message we had to send, we had to get back to Capitol Hill as soon as possible.”
Even after the events of the day, some Republicans still followed through on their decisions to challenge the certified election results.
“After the violence. Shame on them,” Pelosi said of objections to the certified vote. “And shame on two-thirds of the Republican caucus in the House for supporting … so these people are facilitators of the president’s behavior.”
Pelosi’s office announced on Sunday night that House Democrats would bring forward a resolution on Monday calling on Vice President Pence to initiate Mr Trumps’ removal from office under the 25th Amendment.
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