Pelosi won’t forgive Trump and ‘his lackeys’ for inciting Jan. 6 attack on Capitol
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared she won’t forgive former President Trump and his allies for inciting the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.
“I’ll never forgive the former president of the United States and his lackeys and his bullies that he sent to the Capitol for the trauma.... that was exerted,” Pelosi said.
Answering a question about security at the Capitol, Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she believes the citadel of American democracy is better protected than it was a year ago in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack.
But the Speaker asserted that it would have been impossible to prepare for an attempted insurrection supported by a sitting president with millions of ardent supporters behind him.
“I don’t think anybody ... could predict that the president of the United States would incite an insurrection and a violent one,” she said.
Pelosi and most of her legislative colleagues were inside the Capitol planning to certify President Biden’s election victory when Trump urged thousands of his supporters to “fight like hell” to stop them. They overwhelmed outnumbered police and marauded through the Capitol for hours hunting down Pelosi along with other perceived enemies of Trump including former Vice President Mike Pence.
About 400 congressional staffers recently signed a petition saying they no longer feel safe working on Capitol Hill after the insurrection and the ugly attacks on political opponents by mostly Republican lawmakers.
Pelosi said elected officials expect to be lightning rods for vitriol, but the same standard shouldn’t be applied to “idealistic young people” like the staffers who expect civility in their workplace.
“For these young people ... the way it traumatized them, it was frightening,” she said. “You can’t erase it.”
