House Speaker Nancy Pelosi impeached President Donald Trump in January for her own negligence. As demonstrators flocked to the nation’s capital for a day of protest — some peaceful, some not — the ignored possibility of unrest chalked up to an intelligence failure was even predicted by the Capitol Hill parking attendants.
“Due to the possibility of large scale public protests, access to the Capitol plaza will be restricted,” read an email from the House Parking Team on the eve of the riot. “For the safety and security of personnel on the House campus, we ask that staff strongly consider parking in the Cannon and Longworth House Underground Garages.”
But Pelosi and her team in charge of Capitol security had no idea to prepare for the possibility of turmoil? Worse, reporting shows the speaker’s office deliberately left the Capitol vulnerable.
Four days after the riot, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned his post in the aftermath, told The Washington Post his request for pre-emptive reinforcement from the National Guard ahead of Jan. 6 was turned down. Sund said House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, overseen by Pelosi, thought the guard’s deployment was bad “optics” two days before the raid. Pelosi and House Democrats had previously condemned the presence of federal troops in the nation’s capital to quell the violent mobs overrunning the city in the name of social justice.
In February, The Daily Caller cited three sources familiar with Irvin’s conversations with the House Administration Committee after the riot. The sergeant of arms said discussions with the speaker’s staff were factors in his “blender of decision making.” The Caller’s sources remained anonymous, “citing the fear of putting a chill on further witnesses to how the security situation unfolded Jan. 6.”
“Pelosi’s office had previously impressed upon Irving that the National Guard was to remain off Capitol Grounds, Irving allegedly told House Admin,” The Daily Caller reported.
In a statement to the Caller at the time, Pelosi Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammil denied the speaker’s office was “consulted or contacted concerning any request for the National Guard ahead of January 6th.”
“The Speaker expects security professionals to make security decisions and to [be] briefed about those decisions,” Hammil said.
Despite the Associated Press and Washington Post’s best efforts to run interference for the speaker, suddenly exonerating her of duties overseeing Capitol security, the riot on Jan. 6 was a security failure Pelosi owns. If the “speaker trusts security professionals to make security decisions,” then why, as the police breach unfolded, did Irving feel compelled to seek the speaker’s approval to dispatch the National Guard, as The New York Times reported? How could Pelosi also order the extended shut down of the Capitol to visitors, citing coronavirus, and install metal detectors in the House chamber?
Pelosi’s failures, however, extend beyond the week of the riot itself.
In June, a bipartisan Senate report documented the failures of Capitol security that led to the Jan. 6 havoc on the hill, highlighting ill-trained and ill-equipped law enforcement unable to confront an assault on the complex. Throughout Pelosi’s latest tenure as speaker, the House Administration Committee held one hearing on Capitol security, which was held in the summer of 2019. Pelosi took no action on any of the issues raised in the hearing. Proactive leadership might have made Jan. 6 turn out differently.
The New Hoax Is A Coverup
The ongoing House Select Committee investigation serves just as much to protect Pelosi as it does to use the levers of government to punish political dissidents, even targeting private records of individuals with no connection to the violence.
While the Senate wrapped up a bipartisan investigation from two committees by mid-summer, Pelosi’s partisan probe, void of Republican appointments, continues to drag onward. Pelosi barred Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, from the probe after the two members appointed by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pursuant to House rules raised questions surrounding the speaker’s failure to secure the Capitol.
On Monday, Pelosi’s hand-picked Select Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming staged a prime-time performance by reading aloud private messages sent to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as the riot unfolded. Fox News personalities, Cheney complained, pled with Meadows to urge Trump to tell rioters to go home. While framed as an indictment of White House culpability in the Capitol turmoil, the messages debunk the entire Democrat narrative depicting an administration complicit with the carnage.
It was already reported that White House aides recommended Trump make a statement, which he did, which was then suppressed on social media.
Later reporting by The Federalist this week revealed messages read by California Rep. Adam Schiff at the same hearing were doctored, nearly 12 months after House Democrats used fabricated evidence in their January impeachment trial. The trove of documents released this week from the committees’ subpoena of Meadows — again framed as an indictment of White House culpability — revealed the chief of staff made clear the National Guard was on standby.
“Mr. Meadows sent an email to an individual about the events on January 6 and said that the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro Trump people’ and that many more would be available on standby,” the Select Committee wrote.
In other words, the Trump White House was more concerned about keeping the public peace with a National Guard presence than Pelosi was.
After the failure of two impeachments, the collapse of the Kremlin collusion conspiracy, and the botched Russian bounties scandal amplified by Cheney, the made-up narrative wherein Trump deliberately mounted an “insurrection” at the Capitol to subvert the 2020 election has become the left’s latest hoax. Meanwhile, Pelosi’s committee continues to sit on 14,000 hours of footage it refuses to reveal to the public or share with Republican investigators appointed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to probe the security failures under the speaker’s oversight.