Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, far-left Democrat of California, might be losing her memory.
A year ago, the revelation surfaced that Pelosi — angry that the National Guard wasn’t at the U.S. Capitol for the mostly peaceful protest on January 6, 2021 — took “full responsibility” for the “stupidity.”
But yesterday, writing on X, she claimed that President Trump “delayed” sending in the Guard. Thus did former chief of Capitol Police Steven Sund remind her that he had asked for the Guard that day, and Pelosi’s sergeant-at-arms turned him down.
The public dressing down doesn’t look good for Pelosi, who landed in Congress 38 years ago and could be slipping.
Last year in August, footage from daughter Alexandria Pelosi’s HBO documentary, shot at the Capitol that day, showed that Pelosi knew the Guard should have been there. Obtained by the Committee on House Administration and published first by Just the News, the footage features Pelosi’s clear understanding that it was her responsibility to call in the Guard.
“We’re calling the National Guard now?” she said, “They should have been here to start out.”
But “Pelosi’s expressions of personal regret were not fully aired in that documentary” and only became public when the committee received all the footage from HBO. “The most recent footage given to Congress provides a stark contrast to Pelosi’s public insistence she had no responsibility for security arrangements by Jan. 6 even though the top House security officer, Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, reported to her,” Just the News reported:
In the footage, Pelosi can be seen pressing for Irving to resign immediately. And she acknowledged that her fellow lawmakers had repeatedly pressed her ahead of Jan. 6 to ensure there was adequate security.
“How many times did members ask, are we prepared? Are we prepared? We’re not prepared for the worst,” Pelosi stated on the tape.
Later, she added: “We will have totally failed. And we’ve got to take some responsibility.”
“Oh my god, I cannot believe the stupidity of this,” Pelosi also said, “And I take the full responsibility.”
Two years ago, the website disclosed that President Trump’s departing Pentagon officials, on January 2, proposed to Capitol Police a Guard presence at the Capitol. In other words, Trump did not “delay” the Guard, as Pelosi posted on X yesterday, responding to Trump’s deploying the Guard to fight crime Washington, D.C.:
Donald Trump delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake.
Now, he’s activating the DC Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, health care, education and immigration — just to name a few blunders.
In fact, and aside from Pelosi’s damning confession, the Capitol Police timeline for January 6 shows that Pelosi and her gang “delayed” the Guard.
On January 2, “Carol Corbin (DOD) texts USCP Deputy Chief Sean Gallagher, Protective Service Bureau, to determine whether USCP is considering a request for National Guard soldiers for January 6, 2021 event,” the timeline says.
On January 3, “Gallagher replies to DOD via text that a request for National Guard support not forthcoming at this time after consultation with COP Sund.”
But as Sund testified to the administration committee, he requested the Guard on January 3 “and was denied by the two Sergeants at Arms over the concerns for politics and optics.”
“Ma’am, it is long past time to be honest with the American people,” Sund replied to Pelosi on X:
On January 3, I requested National Guard assistance, but your Sergeant at Arms denied it. Under federal law (2 U.S.C. §1970), I was prohibited from calling them in without specific approval. That same day, Carol Corbin at the Pentagon offered National Guard support, but I was forced to decline because I lacked the legal authority.
On January 6, while the Capitol was under attack and despite my repeated calls, your Sergeant at Arms again denied my urgent requests for over 70 agonizing minutes, “running it up the chain” for your approval.
When I needed assistance, it was denied. Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops.
As well, as Just the News explained, the HBO footage shows that Pelosi was planning revenge against Trump, even before the day was done:
“I just feel sick about what he did to the Capitol and the country today,” the then-speaker could be heard saying as she left in an SUV after order was restored and she returned to the Capitol to certify the vote. “He’s got to pay a price for that.”
The question about Pelosi’s latest post is whether she’s merely playing politics, or she truly doesn’t remember that Trump’s Pentagon offered the Guard, that she and her people turned it down, and that she accepted “full responsibility,” again, for the “stupidity.”
If the latter, it’s entirely understandable. Born March 26, 1940 and elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi is 85 years old, a time when many Americans begin suffering memory problems.
Pelosi is not unusual. Twenty members of the House and Senate are 80 years or older, including GOP Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. He will be 92 next month.