MSNBC Lets Pelosi Dodge Vid Taking ‘Responsibility’ for January 6 Security

Sarah Butler
June 11th, 2024 4:56 PM

Text to Speech

00:00 00:00
Font Size

On Monday, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, host of Deadline: White House, interviewed Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (CA) after bombshell never-before-seen footage from her daughter Alexandra’s January 6 documentary was released. But while the video showed Pelosi in the back a vehicle taking “responsibility” for the Capitol’s security, the intent of the interview was to let her dodge that accountability.

MSNBC played a clip recently released by congressional Republicans of Pelosi from January 6th, but decided to cut some very important parts out of the video. In the clip they shared, Pelosi asked why the National Guard was not at the Capitol. In the whole, unedited version of the clip she openly admitted “I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.”

 

 

Wallace began as she asked Pelosi why she thought this video had “stirred up and a brouhaha on the right and in some corners of the media today?”

Pelosi claimed it was because Trump and his “toadies” were attempting to “do revisionist history on January 6th.” She declared that “we cannot let us be dragged into their, again, false impression of what happened that day.”

Pelosi very briefly mentioned the National Guard's absence from the Capitol as she exclaimed, “And yet this president who incited -- this former president who incited this insurrection would not send the National Guard for hours.”

Unsurprisingly, Pelosi did not mention how she took responsibility for the National Guard's absence in the video, but instead she compared herself to President Abraham Lincoln:

 

 

PELOSI: Last night I received the Lincoln award. I was so proud of receiving that. And I said in my remarks, Lincoln built the dome on the Capitol. He insisted that it be built during the Civil War so that it could show the resilience of America.

Wallace decided to praise Pelosi calling her a “tip of the spear figure in our politics.” But did not stop there as she professed that some Republicans she used to work for “have immense respect for your love of country and your patriotism.” Still not mentioning anything about the guilty confession clip.

Instead, Wallace asked Pelosi how she thinks the upcoming campaigns will be perceived by the American people and allowed her guest to nearly four, uninterrupted minutes to bash Republicans and praised President Biden.

“Well, let me just say that Republicans have always tried to wrap themselves in the flag while they denigrate it,” Pelosi chided.

At no point did Wallace ask Pelosi for context or clarity regarding the video throughout this entire interview.

Click "Expand" to view the transcripts: 

MSNBC Deadline: White House

6/10/2024

5:27:18-5:31:54 PM

[VIDEO CLIP]

NANCY PELOSI: You gonna ask me in the middle of the thing when they've already breached the inaugural stuff that should we call the Capitol Police -- I mean the National Guard? Why weren't the National Guard there to begin with?

[END CLIP]

NICOLE WALLACE: Joining our coverage, California Democratic congresswoman, the Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. Madam Speaker, nice to see you. Thank you for being here.

PELOSI: A pleasure to be here. Thank you, Nicolle.

WALLACE: Why do you think this has stirred up and a brouhaha on the right and in some corners of the media today?

PELOSI: Well, because the fact is that the president of the United States, the former president, and his toadies do not want to face the facts. They're trying to do revisionist history on January 6th. But we cannot let us be dragged into their, again, false impression of what happened that day. They know what happened that day. They know how serious it is and was and continues to have an impact on our country. And yet they want to call the people who were in there hostages.

Last night I received the Lincoln award. I was so proud of receiving that. And I said in my remarks, Lincoln built the dome on the Capitol. He insisted that it be built during the Civil War so that it could show the resilience of America.

And to see these people coming through the Capitol with their foul deeds and foul actions, waving Confederate flags and Nazi flags under Lincoln's dome was so shameful. And yet this president who incited -- this former president who incited this insurrection would not send the National Guard for hours. People were harmed. People were killed. That died one way or another. And what did he do but try to deny that any of it happened. This is a terrible thing.

But let us not take away the attention of what we need to do to go forward. We have to unify our country. We have to bring people together in a way, in a way that honors the vision of our founders. The sacrifice of our men and women in uniform as well as the aspirations of our children.

I just came back from D-Day in Normandy to see our veterans there who -- the 80th anniversary of it –

WALLACE: -- Yeah --

PELOSI: -- some of the youngest of them were 97, some over 100. They fought for our freedom. And yet you see how it is being denigrated by the former president and his Republican toadies.

WALLACE: Madam speaker, you've always been sort of a tip of the spear figure in our politics. And you’ve always and I don't know that people know this, I don't know how much you like this said on TV. Republicans, my old boss included, have not even grudging respect, have immense respect for your love of country and your patriotism.

Stuart Stevens made the point in the last hour that if this campaign is waged around big things like the flag, which Trump supporters denigrated on the day of the insurrection when they held it upside down, an upside down flag also on the property, the Virginia property of Supreme Court Justice Alito, also according to journalist Vaughn Hillyard showing up all around the country, leading to this movement of denigrating the flag, showing it in a sign of distress as a political statement, describing veterans as losers and suckers, something General Kelly had to come out and confirm on the record and say it was definitely true.

I mean, if the campaign is waged around the flag, around whether men and women who die serving the country are losers or suckers or not, what do you think that campaign looks and feels like for the American people?

PELOSI: Well, let me just say that Republicans have always tried to wrap themselves in the flag while they denigrate it. I come from Baltimore, Maryland originally, where the national anthem was written, and in the national anthem my favorite line is "Proof through the night that our flag was still there." We have to prove through the night of this activity that they're putting on that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for all.

But we have to run a campaign around the kitchen table issues, about jobs and access to health care and education and what it means for America's working families. That is how they make their decisions. The kitchen table is more important than the corporate boardroom table, around the cabinet table, anything. It is the most important place where decisions are made about the future.

(…)

Donor Privacy Policy