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Dramatic new Jan. 6 footage shows Pelosi and Schumer calling for help during Capitol riot

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection presented remarkable never-before-seen video on Thursday of congressional leaders from both parties — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — sheltering in an undisclosed location as a violent mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol.

In the footage, Pelosi initially appeared to be focused on finishing the process of certifying the election results.

“We have got to get — finish the proceedings,” she said shortly after the Capitol was breached, “or else they will have complete victory.”

But she soon learned of the gravity of the situation when a staff member told her that members were being instructed to put on gas masks as they evacuated the House floor.

A video of  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi plays above members of the House Jan.6 committee during a public hearing.
A video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi being played during Thursday's hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Pelosi and Schumer are seen at the height of the violence calling various Trump administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, to ask for help.

They also called the governors of Maryland and Virginia to ask that those states send in National Guard troops.

“Hi, Governor. This is Nancy,” Pelosi said in a call to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. “I don't know if you had been approached about the Virginia National Guard … but I still think you probably need the OK of the federal government in order to come into another jurisdiction.

“Oh, my God, they're just breaking windows or doing all kinds of — it's really that somebody, they said somebody was shot,” she continued. “It's just horrendous, and all at the instigation of the president of the United States.”

Schumer urged Rosen to get Trump to put out a statement calling off the mob.

“Why don't you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility?” Schumer asked. “A public statement that they should all leave.”

“They're breaking windows and going in, obviously ransacking our offices and all the rest of that. That's nothing,” Pelosi explained. “The concern we have about personal safety just transcends everything.”

A violent mob of President Donald Trump's supporters storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
A violent mob of President Donald Trump's supporters storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Later in the video, Pelosi, Schumer and McConnell, as well as Reps. Steve Scalise and Steny Hoyer and Sen. John Thune, are seen huddled together on a call to the Department of Defense, pleading for troops to be sent in.

“We need them there now, whoever you got,” Schumer said.

“Just pretend for a moment that it were the Pentagon or the White House or some other entity that was under siege,” Pelosi said. “Let me say you can logistically get people there as you make the plan.”

“Everyone involved was working actively to stop the violence, to get federal law enforcement to the scene to put down the violence and secure the Capitol complex — not just Democrats,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said while introducing the footage. “All of them did what President Trump was not doing — what he simply refused to do.”