Newly released January 6 footage by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight reveals then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressing responsibility for failing to prevent the event. In the footage, Pelosi is heard telling her Chief of Staff, Terri McCullough, "We have responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have."
"This is ridiculous. You’re going to ask me in the middle of the thing when they’ve already breached the inaugural stuff should we call the Capitol police — I mean the National Guard?” Pelosi continued. “ Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?”
An off-camera voice in the footage suggests, "They thought that they had sufficient resources," to which Pelosi responds, "They clearly didn’t know. And I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more."
In a September 2023 interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Donald Trump claimed, "Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security. She turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had Jan 6."
In March 2024, transcripts from an interview with Trump’s former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato were released, indicating that Trump had taken steps to deploy the National Guard on January 6. To quote from the key takeaways: “A January 6 committee staffer asked Ornato, ‘When it comes to the National Guard statement about having 10,000 troops or any other number of troops, do you recall any discussion prior to the 6th about whether and how many National Guard troops to deploy on January 6th?’ Ornato surprised the committee by noting he did recall a conversation between [Mark] Meadows and [DC Mayor Muriel] Bowser: ‘He was on the phone with her and wanted to make sure she had everything that she needed,’ Ornato told investigators.”
Ornato also testified that Mark Meadows “wanted to know if [Bowser] needed any more guardsman” - “And I remember the number 10,000 coming up of, you know, ‘The president wants to make sure that you have enough.’ You know, ‘He is willing to ask for 10,000.’ I remember that number.”
