Nancy Pelosi 60 Minutes Interview Transcript After Capitol Riots & Attack

Lesley Stahl: (00:51)
Madam Speaker, who is running the government of the United States? We have a pandemic, we just had this horrendous act of violence up here. We had a Russian hack of our institutions. Is anybody running the executive branch of the government? Who is running the executive branch?

Nancy Pelosi: (01:13)
Well, sadly, the person who’s running the executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States, and only a number of days until we can be protected from him. But he has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him.

Well, I gather that the 25th Amendment is off the table.

No, it isn’t. Nothing is off the table.

The mayhem at the Capitol started early afternoon on January 6th, with the rioters barreling past the barricades, clashing with police, and breaking into the Capitol. As they swarmed through the halls, the Speaker was on the House floor during the count of the electoral college vote.

So tell us what happened when the protestors were trying to get in here. You’re up there.

Well, when the protesters who were making the assault on the Capitol, before they even got to these doors, the Capitol Police pulled me from the podium. 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 this.” “No, you must leave.”

Police, guns drawn, held the invaders off the House floor. But over in the Senate, the Trump supporters were able to break into the chamber. The scenes were shocking to watch.

I think it was universally accepted that what happened was a terrible, terrible violation of the Capitol, of the first branch of government, the legislative branch, by the president of the United States.

The mob was free to roam the halls, one group making it right up to Speaker Pelosi’s suite of offices.

This door they broke down, as you can see.

Oh my goodness.

They broke that down.

Look at that. They broke the door.

They smashed it in.

And went through to another door, behind which Pelosi’s young staff coward, terrorized.

The staff went under the table, barricaded the door, turned out the lights and were silent in the dark.

Under the table this whole time?

Under the table for two and a half hours.

Wow. During which time they listened to the invaders banging on that door, as you can hear on a recording from one of the staffer’s phones.

Speaker 4: (04:02)
Check this out. We’re inside Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Across the hall, a group broke in to the Speaker’s private office.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. You see?

Oh, wow.

You see what they did to the mirror there? The glass was all over the place.

They smashed it.

They took a computer and all that stuff, a laptop. 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.

That man was arrested on Friday, and the FBI is investigating whether any of the agitators, some seen in ballistic vests with zip ties, intended to kidnap or kill legislators or their staffers.

They were coming to find you, maybe to hurt you. I don’t know.

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.”

Rioters: (05:10)
[crosstalk 00:05:12]. Nancy!

While all of this was going on, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer, from an undisclosed location, called on the president to tell his followers to leave the Capitol.

Donald Trump: (05:24)
It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now. We have to have peace.

The president said, “Go home, but the election was …” Went on with his lies, his misrepresentations, his delusion that he won in a landslide in this election.

So finally the protesters were ejected, and you came almost right back into session. How did that happen?

I know from Chuck Schumer and from Mitch McConnell there was consensus that we should come back.

There was no discussion?

There was some suggestions that it may take too long and we should do it at the undisclosed location, but there was general belief that from the message of strength that we needed to send, we had to go back to the Capitol as soon as possible.

Mike Pence: (06:15)
The Senate will come to order. [crosstalk 00:06:15].

Vice President Pence, who had been taken to a secure location in the Capitol, concurred with the decision to resume the count amid reports that he was livid at the president.

Mike Pence: (06:27)
Let’s get back to work.

Work dragged on until almost 4:00 AM …

Speaker 8: (06:31)
I object to the electoral votes [crosstalk 00:06:36].

… as Republicans challenged certified election results.

And they did that after the violence?

After the violence. Shame on them, and shame on two-thirds of the Republican caucus in the House supporting those. So these people are enablers of the president’s behavior. I remember when Republicans in the Senate went to see Richard Nixon and said, “It’s over.” That’s what has to happen now.

One of the reasons she’s so eager to see Mr. Trump’s immediate removal from office is her grave concern that in the next 10 days he might try to do something reckless militarily, including ordering the use of nuclear weapons. She told us she sought advice from General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

I have sought information from those who are in a position to know that there are protections against this dangerous president initiating any military hostilities or something worse than that.

Something else she and Senator Schumer did was call the vice president to urge him to initiate the 25th Amendment that provides procedures to remove a president from office.

We were kept on the line for 20 minutes. “He’s going to be here in a minute, a minute, a minute.” Well, he never did come to the phone.

They kept you on hold for 20 minutes?

At least. Of course, I was at home so I was running the dishwasher, putting my clothes in the laundry. We’re still waiting for him to return the call.

Mike Pence: (08:03)
Joseph R. Biden Jr. of the state of Delaware has received 306 votes. Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 232 votes. [crosstalk 00:08:15].

After Congress confirmed Joe Biden’s victory in the election, President Trump read from a teleprompter offering his most conciliatory statement about the election.

Donald Trump: (08:25)
A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power.

Mr. Trump has said he will not attend the inauguration. The new president has said he wants to turn over a new page of bipartisan cooperation.

In the election in November, someone said that the mandate that the Democrats won was not about issues because you lost so many seats; that the mandate was for tone and attitude and a strong desire for compromise.

I do know that it was a mandate for us to go forward with an agenda for America’s working families, as well as to do so in tone. I always say to our members, we have a responsibility to find common ground. When we can’t, we must stand our ground, but we have a responsibility to try.

You yourself are not known as a person who compromises.

No, I am. I compromise. We want to get the job done. I’m mis-characterized by the Republicans that way, but that’s a tactic that they use, but we know we want results for the American people.

What about the COVID relief package that was held up for eight months?

No. But that was their obstruction. Understand this.

But wait.

It was their obstruction.

Yours, too.

It was their obstruction.

No, yours, too. It takes two.

No, it wasn’t obstruction.

You held out for eight months.

No, we held it up because there was no respect for our heroes, our state and local healthcare workers, police and fire, our first responders, our sanitation, transportation, food workers, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers. They would not go down that path.

There’s a member of your caucus who said specifically that, “We look like obstructionists, and it was a mistake.”

Well, I don’t remember anybody saying that, and they may have. And they may have, but it wasn’t a mistake, and I would not, and nobody expects me to, to support something that solidifies injustice in our country.

Let’s talk about the Russian hack. There was an invasion, a cyber invasion.

A big deal.

Big deal. What should the United States do about that?

In terms of the hack that the president would not assert his authority … First of all …

He hasn’t said anything.

No, he hasn’t said anything because-

Except that maybe China did it.

Yeah. Well, the president, again, has a 10-year blind spot and whatever obligation. I don’t know what the Russians have on President Trump, whether it’s personal, whether it’s political, whether it’s financial. I don’t know what it is.

You think they have something on him?

But there’s no other explaining why this president of the United States is such a handmaiden of Putin.

Can we talk about the A-word?

With that?

Age.

Oh, age.

You’re 80.

Right.

You’re number two. Steny Hoyer’s 81. You’re number three. Jim Clyburn is 80. Why haven’t you brought young people into the leadership?

Because we have. You perhaps don’t know.

Why does AOC complain that you have not been grooming younger people?

I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her, because we are.

That was kind of sharp, kind of dismissing her.

I’m not dismissing her. I respect her. I think she’s very effective, as are many other members in our caucus that the press doesn’t pay attention to, but they are there, and they are building support for what comes next.

The Speaker intends to keep the pressure on President Trump to leave office as soon as possible. If he does not resign immediately, she has threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings.

What if he pardons himself?

What if he pardons these people who are terrorists on the Capitol?

Or pardons himself.

What if he does that? He can only pardon himself from federal offenses. He cannot pardon himself from state offenses, and that’s where he’s being investigated in the state of New York.

There is a possibility that after all of this, there’s no punishment, no consequence, and he could run again for president.

And that’s one of the motivations that people have for advocating for impeachment.

Won’t that take more than the 10 days. I mean, does it actually makes sense?

Well, I like the 25th Amendment because it gets rid of him. He’s out of office. But there is strong support in the Congress for impeaching the president a second time. This president is guilty of inciting insurrection. He has to pay a price for that.

Nancy Pelosi 60 Minutes Interview Transcript After Capitol Riots & Attack

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