Nancy Pelosi Fires Back at Donald Trump's 'Meet the Press' Interview

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi has hit back at former president Donald Trump after he blamed her for the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

During an appearance on MNSBC's The Sunday Show, host Jonathan Capehart asked for her response to Trump's recent comments in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press.

Supporters of the former president stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an effort to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's victory following weeks of Trump falsely claiming the 2020 election had been stolen from him. Five people died, including a Capitol police officer, and many were injured in the melee. Two other law enforcement officers later took their own lives.

The House January 6 committee's final report said Trump engaged in a "multi-part conspiracy" to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. Trump has always denied wrongdoing.

In a sit-down interview with Meet the Press' new moderator Kristen Wekler that aired Sunday, he laid the blame for the violence squarely on Pelosi.

"She's responsible for January 6th[...]Nancy Pelosi is responsible," Trump said, adding that Pelosi was "in charge of security."

Pelosi fired back, saying Trump was projecting.

"The former occupant of the White House has always been about projection," Pelosi told Capeheart on Sunday.

"He knows he's responsible for that so he projects it onto others. His instigation of an insurrection, an assault on our Constitution the day we were supposed to approve the—well and we did—the work of the Electoral College[...]The assault on the Capitol building, the assault on the Constitution, the assault on our democracy. Shame on him. However, he always projects."

Trump "used to say, 'well, she turned down my troops,'" Pelosi said. "No, we begged him.

"[Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and I begged him to send the troops again and again, his Secretary of the Army, [Ryan D] McCarthy[...]and, I think, [the] Secretary of Defense just made it 'oh, there are too many obstacles. It's bureaucratic, it's this, we can't do it.' They know their exposure so they project."

Trump, who is running to regain the White House, is facing 91 charges across four federal and state felony indictments in cases connected to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his handling of classified documents and his role in alleged hush money payments to hide claims he had extramarital affairs. He has denied all the charges against him.

He also told Welker that he is not worried about going to prison.

"I don't even think about it," Trump said. "I'm built a little differently, I guess, because I have had people come up to me and say, 'How do you do it, sir? How do you do it?' I don't even think about it."

Newsweek has contacted Pelosi and the Trump campaign for further comment via email.