House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is sharing her experience during the U.S. Capitol riot last week.
Protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 on the day Congress met to cement Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.
Pelosi explained her experience last Wednesday during an interview with CBS’ Lesley Stahl:
“When the protesters were making the assault on the Capitol — before they even got to these doors — the Capitol Police pulled me from the podium and I was concerned because I said, ‘No, I want to be here. And they said, ‘Well, no, you have to leave.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not leaving.’ [They said,] ‘No, you must leave.'”
Protestors, Trump supporters, managed to break their way into the Senate chamber but did not manage to break into the House floor.
Pelosi told Stahl that she believes it is “universally accepted that what happened,” before choking up for a moment then proceeding to say, “was a terrible, terrible violation of the Capitol, of the first branch of government, the legislative branch by the president of the United States.”
Watch Pelosi’s interview below:
“What happened was a terrible, terrible violation…of the legislative branch by the president of the United States.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi describes the moment Capitol Police pulled her from the podium as a mob swarmed the halls of the Capitol. https://t.co/oHNUitL2Wm pic.twitter.com/qdUziiwHPe
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 11, 2021
Pelosi also spoke about protestors going into her office, breaking down a door in the process.
“The staff went under the table, barricaded the door, turned out the lights, and were silent in the dark,” the House speaker explained, adding that her staff were hiding for two and a half hours.
Pelosi’s private office was also broken into.
When a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some made their way to Speaker Pelosi’s office. In a recording from one of Speaker Pelosi’s staffers, the invaders are heard banging on a door her staff had barricaded while they hid under a table. https://t.co/CNmQcAs9av pic.twitter.com/ymt3CI0hHi
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 11, 2021
“Glass is all over the place.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shows Lesley Stahl the destruction in her office after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some of them in search of Speaker Pelosi. https://t.co/lZbCRGlV5P pic.twitter.com/GbDo2pEEQI
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 11, 2021
Congress members worked until roughly 4 a.m., once coming back into session after going to an undisclosed location during the protests. Pelosi said of Republican lawmakers who still challenged the election results after the violence, “After the violence. Shame on them.”
Pelosi has expressed support for invoking the 25th Amendment, which would remove President Donald Trump and put Vice President Mike Pence in charge until Biden is inaugurated. Additionally, House Democrats are expected to vote this week on an article of impeachment to charge Trump with “incitement of insurrection.”