Pelosi hits Trump on LA: Where was National Guard on Jan. 6

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hammered President Trump on Tuesday for tapping the National Guard to help quell protests in Los Angeles, noting that the president had refused congressional pleas to take that step when a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“In a bipartisan way, on Jan. 6 — with violence against the Constitution, against the Congress and against the United States Capitol — we begged the president of the United States to send in the National Guard,” Pelosi told reporters. “He would not do it.”

Trump sent the National Guard to Los Angeles without the consent of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who argued Trump’s actions risked elevating violence. He did so amid protests against raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The White House argues local officials did not do enough to curtail protestors endangering federal property and officials. The Pentagon has since sent Marines to Los Angeles.

The Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol came after months of Trump making false claims that he had won the 2020 election, only to have it stolen away by a vast conspiracy of corrupt election officials, foreign governments and underhanded software companies. No evidence has emerged to back those claims.

In a Jan. 6 speech on the Ellipse in Washington, Trump urged thousands of supporters to march to the Capitol to protest Congress’s formal certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Once there, hundreds of his loyalists overwhelmed the Capitol and D.C. police officers protecting the Capitol complex and stormed into the building. Roughly 150 law enforcers were injured in the melee. 

Trump has insisted that he called for the National Guard to be deployed that day, only to have the request denied. But there is no evidence to support the claim. And Christopher Miller, Trump’s acting Defense secretary at the time of the rampage, testified in 2022 that Trump never issued a formal order. 

After the Capitol was breached, Pelosi, who was then the Speaker, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who was then the Senate Majority leader, both called the Pentagon requesting help from the National Guard. Mike Pence, then the vice president, made a similar request. Some top Pentagon officials were leery, however, of the optics of having troops defend Congress from Trump supporters. And it took hours before the Pentagon approved the request for the Guard from the Capitol Police chief, and hours more before the first troops arrived at the Capitol. 

Pelosi has come under fire from Trump’s supporters after a video from Jan. 6, filmed by her daughter, emerged in which she expressed regret that she didn’t push harder to ensure that the Capitol was fortified that day. 

“I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more,” she said. 

Her office has defended the remark, noting that the Speaker is not in charge of security at the Capitol complex. 

On Tuesday, Pelosi also took a shot at Trump for pardoning all of the Jan. 6 rioters, including those who maimed police officers. 

“When law enforcement people were being harmed — some later died — he would not send [the Guard] in,” she said. 

“He forgave those people,” she added. “And yet in the contra-Constitutional way, he has sent the National Guard into California. Something is very wrong with this picture.”