After mob storms Capitol, Pelosi tells colleagues: ‘Let’s do our work’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — next in line after Vice President Mike Pence for succession to the presidency — was said to be “safe’’ after rioters breached the Capitol Wednesday, her office said.
Pelosi asked the National Guard to clear the Capitol as supporters of President Donald Trump stormed it Wednesday afternoon as Congress began the process of certifying the results of the 2020 election. Images emerged of rioters overtaking her own office.
Pence and Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, were also taken to a safe location.
The speaker later addressed colleagues in an undisclosed location, saying that she had hoped this day would be an epiphany for the Constitution.
“Little did we know that later in the day, there would be an assault on our democracy, an assault on the institution ... the Capitol of the United States,” Pelosi said, according to an audio recording obtained by the Capitol press pool.
And while she said, “the purpose was to stop us from honoring the Constitution and validating the election,” that work would go on. By Wednesday evening, the electoral count was resuming. “Let’s do our work,” she urged.
The Capitol was officially locked down Wednesday at 2:18 p.m. ET. People were told to use underground tunnels at the Capitol to move to nearby office buildings in the complex and stay away from windows and doors leading outside. Wednesday’s chaotic scene came after Pelosi narrowly won a fourth term as speaker and as she had been contending with some Republicans who would not take steps at the Capitol to prevent COVID from spreading.
Pelosi is presiding over a Democratic caucus with 222 members, four more than a majority in the 435-seat chamber. That means Republicans are poised to do all they can to make vulnerable incumbents squirm.
The events are likely to only contribute further to the tensions that have divided the two parties for years as Pelosi tries to conduct House business moving forward.
Once the electoral votes are counted and President-elect Joe Biden is certified as the winner, which will probably happen Thursday, the House was scheduled to recess Friday afternoon until Inauguration Day Jan. 20.
When it returns, Pelosi faces a Republican caucus where many members are likely to be in an angry mood. Pelosi sternly told Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Ga., Tuesday to wear a mask on the floor. Greene refused.
Sunday, Pelosi was re-elected speaker, but with just 216 votes. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., received 209.
Now she presides over a House where dozens of Republicans are expected to side with colleagues objecting to the electoral vote counts in some states for Biden.
She has had a relationship with Trump that’s been unusually contentious. During negotiations over an economic relief plan during most of 2020, she didn’t deal with the president, but his treasury secretary.
Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made a pointed plea in a joint statement Wednesday.
“We are calling on President Trump to demand that all protesters leave the U.S. Capitol and Capitol Grounds immediately,” they said.
But the tension — unprecedented in modern times at the Capitol — will not fade quickly.
Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., a leader of the bipartisan Problem Solvers caucus, had shouted at Republicans “this is because of you.” Later Wednesday, he was unapologetic.
“I said what I was feeling. This has been brewing for four years. And the collective dereliction of duty manifests itself in that moment for me,” he said.
Republicans agreed on that much. “This didn’t start on November the 3rd,” said Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa. “This has been going on for four years.
“There have been an awful lot of people during the last four years that have just been getting more and more incensed about what is going on around the country, on both sides,” he said. “It’s just too bad. This is not how we handle things in America.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 4:48 PM with the headline "After mob storms Capitol, Pelosi tells colleagues: ‘Let’s do our work’."
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