‘It was a terrible violation’: Pelosi chokes up on 60 Minutes retelling how her staff hid in the dark for two hours as MAGA mob rampaged through the Capitol – while she was whisked to a secure location
- Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, appeared on 60 Minutes on Sunday
- She told of her horror at the scenes on Wednesday unfurling around her
- Pelosi became emotional recounting how her staff hid in the dark for two hours
- A mob of Trump supporters, chanting her name, smashed the door to her office
- Computers were stolen, a mirror smashed and glass strewn around her room
- Pelosi was in a secure location at the time and did not realize the devastation
- She told 60 Minutes Trump was ‘a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president’
Nancy Pelosi fought to contain her emotions as she told 60 Minutes how her staff cowered under desks in the dark for two hours, as a frenzied mob of Trump supporters smashed through her office.
‘I think there was, universally accepted, that what happened…’ she said, pausing to compose herself.
‘Was a terrible, terrible violation of what – of the Capitol, of the first branch of government, the legislative branch, by the president of the United States.’
Pelosi’s door was smashed down, and rioters stormed her private office.
Nancy Pelosi closed her eyes and took a minute to compose herself, speaking about the riot
Nancy Pelosi, in a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, showed Stahl the destruction in her office
Pelosi’s employees cowered under this table in the dark for two hours as the mob roamed
Rioters draped in Trump flags are pictured rampaging through Pelosi’s office
One man is seen photographing a picture from Pelosi’s office, having broken into the room
Trump supporters in their MAGA caps played with Pelosi’s office furniture
The mob of Trump supporters chanted Pelosi’s name as they rampaged through the building
‘The staff went under the table, barricaded the door, turned out the lights, and were silent in the dark,’ Pelosi said, showing 60 Minutes interviewer Lesley Stahl the damage.
‘Under the table for two and a half hours.’
During this time in hiding, they listened to the invaders banging on that door.
Pelosi’s team cowered, praying the mob did not find them.
‘You see what they did to the mirror there? The glass was all over the place,’ said Pelosi.
‘They took a computer and all that stuff.
‘And then the desk that they actually were at was right there that they defamed in that way, feet on the desk and all that.’
One of the rioters, Richard Barnett, 60, was pictured putting his feet up on her desk.
The MAGA rioter who put his feet up on Nancy Pelosi ‘s desk was arrested at home in Arkansas
Richard Barnett, 60, shows off a letter from Nancy Pelosi’s desk which he stole
Barnett is pictured inside Pelosi’s office on Wednesday, having stormed into the Capitol
Authorities said Barnett was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and theft of public money, property, or records
Barnett, who proudly referred to himself as a white nationalist on social media, was federally charged with unlawful entry. He was taken into custody at his home in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Richard Barnett, 60, has been charged with unlawful entry
Another, Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr, allegedly wrote in a text to a friend that he was thinking of ‘putting a bullet in [Pelosi’s] noggin on Live TV’.
Another text allegedly reads: ‘I’m gonna run that c**t Pelosi over while she chews on her gums.’
According to officials, a third text from Meredith, who is a married, father-of-two, says he has ‘a sh*t ton of … armor piercing ammo’.
Meredith is one of 13 people who have been charged with federal crimes.
Pelosi told Stahl: ‘The evidence is now that it was a well-planned, organized group with leadership and guidance and direction. And the direction was to go get people.
‘They were vocally saying, ‘Where’s the speaker? We know she has staff. They’re here someplace. We’re going to find them.”
Prosecutors say these charges are just the beginning. Authorities said Friday that additional cases remained under seal and dozens of other people were being sought by federal agents
Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr (pictured) allegedly texted friends that he wanted to shoot or run over Nancy Pelosi
While the mayhem was unfurling, Pelosi and other Congressmen had been taken to a safe location.
She was unaware until later what had happened in her office.
‘When the protesters were making the assault on the Capitol, before they even got to these doors, the Capitol Police pulled me from the podium,’ she said.
‘And I was concerned because I said: ‘No, I want to be here.’
‘And they said: ‘Well, no, you have to leave.’
‘I said: ‘No, I’m not leaving.’
‘They said: ‘No, you must leave.”
Pelosi said that she was disgusted that some Congressmen still voted to overthrow the election results, when the session resumed.
‘After the violence. Shame on them,’ she said.
‘And shame on two-thirds of the Republican caucus in the House supporting… so these people are enablers of the president’s behavior.’
In one text, Meredith allegedly wrote that he was thinking of ‘putting a bullet in [Pelosi’s] noggin on Live TV’. Another allegedly reads: ‘I’m gonna run that c**t Pelosi over while she chews on her gums’
Pelosi wrote to her Democrat colleagues on Sunday night to explain the next steps
On Sunday night Pelosi wrote to her Democrat colleagues to say that, unless Mike Pence invokes the powers of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, they will proceed with impeachment.
Trump could become the only president to be impeached twice.
‘In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,’ she said, and added: ‘The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.’
She, and other Democrats, further fear the president could pardon those involved in the storming of the Capitol in his final days.
Pelosi’s plan seeks a vote on Monday on a resolution calling on Pence and Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment. Under rules when the full House is not convened, any objection would reject the resolution.
Pelosi would then put the resolution before the full House on Tuesday.
If it were to pass, Pence and the Cabinet would have 24 hours to act before the House would move toward impeachment.
Pelosi showed Stahl where the rioters had smashed through her office door to enter
Pelosi told 60 Minutes on Sunday that she wants impeachment for Donald Trump so he can’t run for office in the future
Pelosi said she would prefer if Vice President Mike Pence invoked the 25th Amendment ‘because it gets rid of him – he’s out of office’ now as concerns mount that Trump could pardon the mob in his last 10 days in office
With impeachment planning intensifying, two Republican senators said they want Trump to resign immediately as efforts mounted to prevent Trump from ever again holding elective office in the wake of deadly riots at the Capitol.
House Democrats were expected to introduce articles of impeachment on Monday. The strategy would be to condemn the president’s actions swiftly but delay an impeachment trial in the Senate for 100 days. That would allow President-elect Joe Biden to focus on other priorities as soon as he is inaugurated on January 20.
Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat and a top Biden ally, laid out the ideas on Sunday as the country came to grips with the siege at the Capitol by Trump loyalists trying to overturn the election results.
‘Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running,’ Clyburn said.
Pressure was mounting for Trump to leave office even before his term ended amid alarming concerns of more unrest ahead of the inauguration.
The mob overran the Capitol Police shortly after Trump urged them to ‘fight’ on his behalf
Police try to hold back protesters pushing into a doorway at the Capitol on Wednesday
The mostly maskless crowd flooded the halls of the Capitol with little resistance from Capitol Police
Capitol police officers point their guns at a door that was vandalized in the House Chamber during a joint session of Congress
Trump addressed his thousands of his supporters near the White House Wednesday at his ‘Save America’ rally and declared war on his own party, calling Republicans who opposed him ‘weak’
A man in a QAnon hoodie is seen inside the Capitol on Wednesday
Lawmakers and law enforcement are pursuing all available avenues to find and prosecute those involved in the Capitol riot – using picture and video evidence to do so
A protester struggles with a riot police officer outside the Capitol building after the 6pm curfew went into effect
The president is accused of whipping up the mob that stormed the Capitol, sent lawmakers into hiding and left five dead.
Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania on Sunday joined his fellow Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in calling for Trump to ‘resign and go away as soon as possible.’
‘I think the president has disqualified himself from ever, certainly, serving in office again,’ Toomey said. ‘I don’t think he is electable in any way.’
Murkowski, who has long voiced her exasperation with Trump’s conduct in office, told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that Trump simply ‘needs to get out.’
A third Republican, Sen. Roy Blunt, of Missouri, did not go that far, but on Sunday he warned Trump to be ‘very careful’ in his final days in office.
Corporate America began to tie its reaction to the Capitol riots by tying them to campaign contributions.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s CEO and President Kim Keck said it will not contribute to those lawmakers — all Republicans — who supported challenges to Biden’s Electoral College win.
The group ‘will suspend contributions to those lawmakers who voted to undermine our democracy,’ Kim said.
Citigroup did not single out lawmakers aligned with Trump’s effort to overturn the election, but said it would be pausing all federal political donations for the first three months of the year. Citi’s head of global government affairs, Candi Wolff, said in a Friday memo to employees, ‘We want you to be assured that we will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law.’
Lisa Murkowski, senator for Alaska, has said she is considering quitting the Republicans
Murkowski said that Trump should resign, saying he had done enough damage
Trump supporters, egged on by the president himself, stormed the Capitol on Wednesday
House leaders, furious after the insurrection, appear determined to act against Trump despite the short timeline.
Mike Pence ‘has not ruled out the 25th Amendment’
Mike Pence and Donald Trump have not spoken since Wednesday’s uprising, CNN reported, during which pro-Trump rioters charged through the Senate looking for Pence and threatening to ‘hang’ him.
Trump was angered by Pence telling him he was not constitutionally able to overturn the election, and lashed out at his vice president on Wednesday, telling supporters: ‘Mike Pence has to come through for us. If he doesn’t that will be a sad day for our country.’ He later tweeted: ‘Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.’
Pence has finally ‘gotten a glimpse of POTUS’s vindictiveness,’ one source told CNN.
It is the first time the normally-loyal Pence has publicly broken with the president.
CNN said that Pence has not ruled out the 25th Amendment.
Invoking the 25th Amendment would require Pence and a majority of the Cabinet to vote to remove Trump from office due to his inability to ‘discharge the powers and duties of his office’ – an unprecedented step.
On Thursday, sources close to the VP said it was ‘highly unlikely’ Pence would attempt to invoke the 25th Amendment. He has not ruled it out, however.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, has said an impeachment trial could not begin under the current calendar before Inauguration Day.
While many have criticized Trump, Republicans have said that impeachment would be divisive in a time of unity.
Senator Marco Rubio said that instead of coming together, Democrats want to ‘talk about ridiculous things like ‘Let’s impeach a president’ with just days left in office.
Still, some Republicans might be supportive.
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said he would take a look at any articles that the House sent over. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a frequent Trump critic, said he would ‘vote the right way’ if the matter were put in front of him.
The Democratic effort to stamp Trump’s presidential record — for the second time — with the indelible mark of impeachment had advanced rapidly since the riot.
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I, a leader of the House effort to draft impeachment articles accusing Trump of inciting insurrection, said Sunday that his group had 200-plus co-sponsors.
The articles, if passed by the House, could then be transmitted to the Senate for a trial, with senators acting as jurors to acquit or convict Trump.
If convicted, Trump would be removed from office and succeeded by the vice president.
It would be the first time a U.S. president had been impeached twice.
Potentially complicating Pelosi’s decision about impeachment was what it meant for Biden and the beginning of his presidency. While reiterating that he had long viewed Trump as unfit for office, Biden on Friday sidestepped a question about impeachment, saying what Congress did ‘is for them to decide.’
While some Democrats are pushing for the impeachment route, the House Speaker told 60 Minutes that she prefers invoking the 25th Amendment because it gets Trump out of office immediately.
‘There is a possibility that after all of this, there’s no punishment, no consequence, and he could run again for president,’ Stahl said to Pelosi in a clip released ahead of airing the full interview.
‘And that’s one of the motivations that people have for advocating for impeachment,’ Pelosi explained.
She is, however, concerned that if Trump is not booted from the White House right now, he will use his last 10 days in office to pardon those part of the mob who descended on the Capitol Wednesday – or even himself and other allies.
‘I like the 25th Amendment because it gets rid of him – he’s out of office,’ Pelosi said. ‘But there is strong support in the Congress for impeaching the president a second time.’
‘What if he pardons himself?’ Stahl asked.
‘What if pardons these people who are terrorists on the Capitol?’ Pelosi shot back.
Congress is moving to prosecute or punish any and all they can find who were involved in the riots at the Capitol – and have already found some who were pictured prominently.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday in an interview with ABC’s ‘This Week’ that half of the members of the House were at risk of dying during the riots.
‘Perhaps my colleagues were not fully present for the events on Wednesday, but we came close to half of the House nearly dying on Wednesday,’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday of the pro-Trump mob descending on the Capitol
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Sunday that Democrats will vote on impeachment this week, but said the party might wait until after Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office to move the articles to the Senate
WHAT DOES THE 25TH AMENDMENT SAY? CAN TRUMP’S CABINET REALLY TOPPLE HIM?
The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution deals with presidential authority in the event of death or removal from office, and was ratified in 1967, in the wake of John F Kennedy’s assassination.
What does the 25th Amendment say?
It is in four sections, all dealing with the president leaving office during his or her elected term.
The first section states that the vice president takes over the Oval Office if the president dies or resigns – or is removed – something which the original Constitution did not clearly state.
Presidents of course can be removed by impeachment, a feature of the constitution from the start. They can also be removed through the 25th Amendment – of which more below.
Section II states that if the vice president dies, or resigns – or is fired – both the House and Senate have to confirm a new vice president. Until 1967, presidents could change vice presidents mid-term on their own if they got the vice president to agree to resign – not something that actually happened, but which was possible in principle.
Section III makes clear that a president can temporarily delegate his powers to the vice president, and later reclaim them when he – or she – is capable of serving. This is most often invoked if a president is under the influence of surgical anesthetic for a short period of time.
Section IV is the amendment’s most controversial part: it describes how the president can be removed from office if he is incapacitated and does not leave on his own.
The vice president and ‘a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide’ must write to both the president pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, saying that ‘the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.’
The term principal officers of the executive departments would normally mean the cabinet secretaries.
So at least eight of the president’s 15 most senior Cabinet members together with the vice president must agree that a president should be removed before any plan can move forward.
Notifying the House Speaker and the Senate president pro tempore is the act that immediately elevates the vice president to an ‘acting president’ role.
The deposed president can contest the claim, giving the leaders of the bloodless coup four days to re-assert their claims to the House and Senate.
Congress then has two days to convene – unless it is already in session – and another 21 days to vote on whether the president is incapable of serving. A two-thirds majority in both houses is required to make that determination.
As soon as there is a vote with a two-thirds majority, the president loses his powers and is removed, and the vice president stops acting and is sworn in as president.
But if 21 days of debate and votes ends without a two-thirds majority, the president gets back his powers.
What could happen to trigger the 25th Amendment?
Vice President Mike Pence and eight of the 15 ‘principal’ Cabinet members would have to agree to notify Congress that President Donald Trump was incapable of running the country.
That group is made up of the Secretary of State, Treasury Secretary, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Interior Secretary, Agriculture Secretary, Commerce Secretary, Labor Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretary, Transportation Secretary, Energy Secretary , Education Secretary, Veterans Affairs Secretary and Homeland Security Secretary.
Their formal notification would go to the House Speaker and, in the senate, to the ‘president pro tempore’, the Senate’s most senior member. As soon as the letter is sent, Pence would become ‘acting president.’
Alternatively, Congress could set up its own mechanism to decide if he is fit for office – maybe a commission, or a joint committee. Pence would still have to agree with its conclusion and then write formally to the Speaker and president pro tempore.
Or another possibility is that the pool of ‘principal officers’ is considered to be bigger than the 15 and a majority of that group call Trump incapable.
What if Trump does not agree?
If Trump claims he is capable of holding office, he would write to the House Speaker and the president pro tempore of the Senate within four days, setting up three weeks of intense debate in both houses of Congress.
Trump would be removed from office if both two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate agreed with Pence and his cabal.
If either of both chambers fell short of that mark, Trump would retain his powers and likely embark on a wholesale housecleaning, firing Pence and replacing disloyal Cabinet members.
Are there any loopholes?
The 25th Amendment allows Congress to appoint its own panel to evaluate the president instead of relying on the Cabinet – the men and women who work most closely with Trump – to decide on a course of action.
It specifies that some ‘other body as Congress may by law provide’ could play that role, but Pence would still need to agree with any finding that the president is incapable of discharging his duties.
That commission could hypothetically include anyone from presidential historians to psychiatrists, entrusted to assess the president’s fitness for office.
Another loophole is that it does not spell out that the Cabinet is needed to agree, but says that the ‘principal officers’ of the departments are needed. That term is undefined in the constitution. In some departments legislation appears to name not just the secretary but deputies and even undersecretaries as ‘principal officers’, so many more people could be called in to the assessment of Trump’s fitness.
But Trump’s cabinet has a swathe of ‘acting’ cabinet officer – and it is unclear if they could therefore take part in removing him.
Could Trump fire Pence if he rebelled?
Yes, in principle. If Trump smelled a whiff of trouble – if Pence and a cabal of Cabinet members, or Pence and a panel assembled by Congress seemed ready to judge him incapacitated – he could dismiss his vice president with the stroke of a pen to stop the process.
But installing a more loyal VP could be problematic since the 25th Amendment includes its own poison pill: Both houses of Congress must vote to approve a new vice president.
That means Trump would find himself up against the same Congress that would vote on his fitness for office, unless the process were to unfold in the weeks before a new Congress.
Theoretically, a Democratic-controlled Congress could make life dramatically more difficult for the president if it came into power in the midst of the constitutional crisis.
One scenario has appeared to stump presidential historians, however: Firing Pence before the process is underway, and then leaving the vice presidency vacant, would give Congress no practical way forward. That would present its own constitutional crisis.
Is there any precedent for this?
No. Only Section III, the voluntary surrender of presidential powers, has ever been used – and only very briefly.
In December 1978, President Jimmy Carter thought about invoking Section III when he was contemplating a surgical procedure to remove hemorrhoids.
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both voluntarily relinquished their powers while undergoing procedures under anesthetic.
Section IV has also never been invoked, although there have been claims that Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff Donald Regan told his successor, Howard Baker, in 1987 that he should be prepared to invoke it because Reagan was inattentive and inept.
The PBS documentary ‘American Experience’ recounts how Baker and his team watched Reagan closely for signs of incapacity during their first meeting and decided he was in perfect command of himself.
‘If another head of state came in and ordered an attack on the United States Congress, would we say that that should not be prosecuted? Would we say that there should be absolutely no response to that?’ the New York congresswoman told ABC host George Stephanopoulos.
‘No,’ Ocasio-Cortez asserted. ‘It is an act of insurrection. It’s an act of hostility. And we must have accountability, because, without it, it will happen again.
‘Perhaps my colleagues were not fully present for the events on Wednesday, but we came close to half of the House nearly dying on Wednesday,’ she said.
Hakeem Jeffries, a fellow New York Representative, agreed with AOC’s points in an interview with NBC on Sunday, claiming: ‘Donald Trump represents a clear and present danger to the health and safety of the American people, as well as our democracy’
The representative, as well as the handful of members of her progressive ‘squad’, are fully on board with plans to again impeach President Trump.
Clyburn said Sunday that articles have already been drawn and he is expecting a vote in the lower chamber in the coming day.
‘I think that will come – probably Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday, but it will happen this week,’ the No. 3 House Democrat told ‘Fox News Sunday’ when asked about the House taking action to impeach Trump. ‘The rest of the articles have been drawn up.’
‘If we are the people’s House, let’s do the people’s work and vote to impeach this president,’ Clyburn continued in his interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace. ‘And then we’ll decide later — or the Senate will decide later — what to do with that impeachment.’
Ocasio-Cortez said ‘every minute’ Trump is still in office, there is a looming threat.
‘I absolutely believe that impeachment should be scheduled for several reasons,’ she said on Sunday.
‘Our main priority is to ensure the removal of Donald Trump as president of the United States,’ AOC added. ‘Every minute and every hour that he is in office represents a clear and present danger, not just to the United States Congress, but, frankly, to the country.’
While Democrats pursue impeachment, many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are calling for Trump to step down on his own volition to prevent Congress from having to intervene.
Lawmakers were forced to evacuate the House and Senate chambers and shelter in offices or other locations on Wednesday after thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol and rioted through the halls
There are also talks of banning Trump from running for president again in the future – as speculation mounts he will pursue another run for the White House in 2024.
‘In addition to removal, we’re also talking about complete barring of the president – or, rather, of Donald Trump from running for office ever again,’ Ocasio-Cortez told ABC.
‘And, in addition to that, the potential ability to prevent pardoning himself from those charges that he was impeached for.’
Jeffries also wants immediate action against Trump, expressing concern that the president still has ‘access to the nuclear codes.’
‘The goal at the present moment is to address the existential threat that Donald Trump presents at this time. Every second, every minute, every hour that Donald Trump remains in office presents a danger to the American people,’ the Democrat representative said on Sunday during an interview on ‘Meet the Press’.
‘You know, Donald Trump may be in the Twitter penalty box, but he still has access to the nuclear codes,’ Jeffries said, referencing Trump’s indefinite ban from Twitter.
‘That’s a frightening prospect.’
He added: ‘Donald Trump is completely and totally out of control, and even his longtime enablers have now come to that conclusion.’
Clyburn, however, said Sunday that House Democrats are weighing if they should hold off on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate until after Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office.
This way, Democrats would allow the new president to install key members of his team and would have a new 50-50 split Senate to work with.
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