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New footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and its aftermath follows then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as she’s evacuated from the building and grappling with how to respond.

The video was recorded by Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, who filmed the footage while producing a documentary for HBO.

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HBO turned the footage over to Congress this week in response to a Republican-led House investigation. The GOP committee is attempting to rebut the findings of an earlier ― and bipartisan ― committee that overwhelmingly found Trump responsible for that day’s failed coup.

The clips, obtained by CNN, show Pelosi fully understood the gravity of the moment as they evacuated, telling her staffers and security detail to “consider the worst.”

The speaker asked for regular updates about what was happening on the House floor, showing extreme frustration that the mob succeeded in delaying certification of the vote.

“If they stopped the proceedings, they will have succeeded in stopping the validation of the president of the United States,” she acknowledged at one point.

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“If they stopped the proceedings, we will have totally failed,” she said. “And we’ve got to take some responsibility for not holding the security accountable for what could have happened. We have got to finish the proceedings.”

Congress certified the vote hours later, after the insurrectionists were cleared from the building. Asked by Alexandra how it felt “to be done with Donald Trump” after the vote was finally certified early in the morning of Jan. 7, Pelosi was in no celebratory mood.

“I just feel sick what he did to the Capitol and to the country today,” Pelosi says, staring at her phone as her SUV trundles through the pre-dawn darkness. “He’s got to pay a price for that.”

Another clip, filmed later that day, shows the speaker dialing in her rhetoric while she meets with staff in the office destroyed by Trump’s mob the day before. A shattered mirror appears on the wall behind them.

“We’ve taken an oath to protect our country from all enemies foreign and domestic,” she says. “There’s a domestic enemy in the White House. And let’s not mince words about this.”

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Republicans have long attempted to blame Pelosi for the day’s violence, falsely claiming her office was responsible for the security failures. The Capitol Police Board, not the House speaker, is in charge of U.S. Capitol security. And Pelosi wouldn’t have had the authority to summon the National Guard to the District of Columbia. Trump, however, did have that authority.

The video does show Pelosi owning some of the day’s failures.

“Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?” she wonders aloud in one clip as she’s being evacuated. “I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more. It’s stupid that we should be in a situation like this.”

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving both resigned after the riot.

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(責任編輯：Encyclopedia)