How pleasing it was to learn last Friday, via seven minutes of newly-released video, that at least one top American official took charge when democracy was imperiled by the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. On one of the darkest days in our history, with tinpot fascists thirsting to hunt her down, Nancy Pelosi was cool, calm, and strong – precisely the reverse of the weak loser who was watching TV to behold the violence he’d stoked.
Say whatever you want about Pelosi – as I certainly have; in 2017, I wrote that dumping her as House Democratic leader “would signal to the broader electorate that the encrusted party is willing to break with its past and make a new start” – the indisputable fact is that when the chips were down as never before, she stood tall as the leader we needed.
That’s not hyperbole. At a time when she was bunkered down in potential physical danger (with the goons yelling, “Bring her out! Bring her out here!”), the House Speaker got on the phone to the vice president of the United States and made it clear, to the ceremonial counter of the electoral votes, that under no circumstances should he share his location with anyone in the actual or suspected employ of the president of the United States.
In dialogue that will go down in history (while chewing on a Slim Jim), she told Mike Pence: “How are you? Oh my goodness, where are you? God bless you…We’ve had a very bad report about the condition of the House floor, defecation and all that kind of thing…I worry about you being in that Capitol. Don’t let anybody know where you are!“
And she repeatedly phoned various Trump toadies (most notably, the acting Secretary of Defense), with fervent but futile demands for National Guard troops and other security personnel. Getting nowhere, she tried low-key sarcasm: “Well, just pretend that it were the Pentagon or the White House or some other entity that was under siege.”
By the way, serial-lying Republicans have been exposed anew as liars. For two years, they’ve variously claimed or implied that Pelosi “hesitated” to ask for National Guard help while the insurrectionists were wreaking havoc. But the new video shows her relentlessly working the phones for Guard help…with House and Senate Republican leaders within earshot in the same room.
I know, big surprise.
So, while Trump and all his big strong MAGA men sat on their hands, an 82-year-old Italian grandmother had the stones and presence of mind to stand up for the America we love. She said it best from her bunkered location: “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, that you can elect the president of the United States.”
And now, on the cusp of our most consequential midterm contests – with 291 election deniers infesting ballots nationwide – Pelosi’s remark, uttered while under siege, is more urgent than ever.