Nancy Pelosi Praised for Jan. 6 Actions: 'One Hell of a Hero'

Footage of Nancy Pelosi released by the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot has been met with praise for the House speaker, who in reaction to the breach on the Capitol building urged Congress to continue verifying the 2020 presidential election.

The footage was shown for the first time on Thursday amid the committee's final public hearing on the insurrection. Clips of Pelosi on the phone with law enforcement and other federal employees to usher in backup for Capitol police were included among a compilation of rioters demanding entrance into the Senate chambers.

Early on in the video, shared to Twitter by The Recount, Pelosi is shown speaking to staffers in an undisclosed location after the Senate floor was put on lockdown.

"There has to be some way we can maintain the sense that people have that there is some security or some confidence that government can function and that you can elect the president of the United States," Pelosi said.

Pelosi is shown making several phone calls—some over a flip phone—to government leaders, stressing the need for additional law enforcement to ensure "personal safety" for members of Congress during the breach. The speaker is shown at one point asking then-governor of Virginia Ralph Northam for help from the Virginia National Guard.

In one call made to former Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Pelosi says the rioters were "breaking the law in many different ways," and described people breaking windows and "ransacking" offices in the Capitol building.

"And quite frankly," Pelosi tells Rosen, "much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States."

Several users on Twitter have praised Pelosi for her response to the Capitol riot, including strategist for the Democratic Party Adam Parkhomenko, who wrote that the speaker "is one hell of a hero."

MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid also praised Pelosi's response, writing that the "5-minute montage the Jan 6 committee just played leads me to the conclusion that America did have a president on January 6th."

"Her name was Nancy Pelosi," Reid added.

Former attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce Alene also tweeted that the top Democrat "has a cool head in a crisis."

The House committee voted unanimously during Thursday's hearing to subpoena former President Donald Trump, saying that he is "required to answer for his actions" in relation to the Capitol riots.

Trump posted to his Truth Social account following the hearing, saying that Pelosi should have called out "the 'troops' before January 6th, which I strongly recommended that she do."

"It was her responsibility, but she 'didn't like the look,'" wrote Trump. "Crazy Nancy failed the American people!"

Drew Hammill, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, told Newsweek in a written statement that the former president's claims "have no basis in fact."

Trump's Director of Communications Taylor Budowich also publicly criticized the decision to subpoena the former president on Twitter, writing that "instead of using their final days in power to make life for Americans any better, Democrats are doubling and tripling down on their partisan theatrics."

Budowich said in a later tweet that Democrats were "simply bitter, power hungry & desperate. Pres Trump will not be intimidate by their meritless rhetoric or un-American actions."

Trump also said on Truth Social that the committee "knowingly failed to examine the massive voter fraud which took place during the 2020 Presidential Election - The reason for what took place on January 6th."

Update 10/13/22, 7:50 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and background.