Pelosi Declared in Video Shot by Daughter ‘I Take Responsibility’ for Jan. 6 Security Failures

Nancy Pelosi in front of January 6 protesters (composite image)

Moments after being whisked away from the U.S. Capitol after it was breached on Jan. 6, 2021, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was captured on videotape declaring “I take responsibility” for failing to have a better security plan for the complex that fateful day, according to footage released Monday by House GOP investigators.

“We have responsibility, Terri,” Pelosi is heard saying on the videotape to her chief of staff, Terri McCullough. “We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous.”

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Commentary: The Pipe Bombs Before January 6 Is a Capital Mystery That Doesn’t Add Up

The newly disclosed video shows a dark SUV pulling up to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., at 9:44 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2021. It sits for several minutes until a uniformed man with a bomb-sniffing dog enters from the right and steps up to the vehicle. The driver complies with his command, the dog sniffs inside and outside the car which is soon allowed to enter the parking garage. The man and his dog exit back to the right.

This scene is unremarkable except for one detail: The uniformed man and his trained canine came within a few feet of where a plainclothes Capitol Police officer would soon discover a pipe bomb that had been planted there the night before. The bomb, which the FBI has described as viable and capable of inflicting serious injury, along with a similar one found at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, would appear to be the most overt act of violence perpetrated on Jan. 6.

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Commentary: Trump’s Ballot Disqualification Case Reaches Supreme Court

In what may turn out to be the most pivotal election case since Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a short order on Jan. 5 granting the request by former President Donald Trump asking the court to overturn the Colorado state Supreme Court’s Dec. 19 decision disqualifying him from appearing on the state’s presidential primary ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court moved with unprecedented speed; Trump filed his petition for certiorari on Jan. 3, and the court granted the appeal only two days later.

The case has been put on what, for the Supreme Court, is a “rocket docket.” Trump’s brief and any amicus briefs supporting the former president in Trump v. Anderson have to be filed by Jan. 18; the challengers’ brief and amicus briefs supporting Trump’s removal have to be filed by Jan. 31. Trump’s reply brief is due on Feb. 5, and oral arguments will be held on Feb. 8. 

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Three Years Later, Fewer Americans Think Trump Was Responsible for Capitol Riot: Poll

January 6

Fewer Democrats and Republicans today than in 2021 think that former President Donald Trump was responsible for the events of Jan. 6 of that year, at the U.S. Capitol, according to a new poll published on Wednesday.

Trump was impeached for a second time by the House of Representatives on Jan. 13, 2021, for “incitement of insurrection” after, on Jan. 6, a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building to disrupt the counting of electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election, following a “Stop the Steal” rally that Trump hosted at the Ellipse. Despite being uniformly blamed by Democrats for the event, fewer Americans in both parties think that Trump was responsible for the events at the Capitol building, according to a poll conducted by the University of Maryland for The Washington Post, published Tuesday.

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