A pair of House Republicans are calling on Democrat Representative Nancy Pelosi to testify about security failures that occurred at the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
“The reason there wasn’t a proper security presence on that day goes right to the speaker’s staff and the speaker’s office. As you go back and look at the communications, there’s this pattern that develops where the Sergeant of Arms is meeting with Pelosi’s staff. Many of those meetings, Republican staff wasn’t allowed to be there, but they had this pattern where everything had to run through her office, her staff, before the Sergeant of Arms could make a decision,” Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said when speaking about House Republicans’ report detailing security failures at the Capitol that day.
Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls issued a similar response: “And Nancy Pelosi. You do have questions you need to answer … Nancy, we’ll get you, and we’ll fly you back from Italy once you’re the ambassador”, Nehls said as he joked about prior reports speculating that President Biden was considering offering the US Ambassador to Italy post to Pelosi.
Former President Donald Trump’s last secretary of defense has taken several “geriatric” congressional leaders to task in a new book, taking particular aim at Pelosi.
Christopher Miller, writing in “Soldier Secretary: Warnings from the Battlefield & the Pentagon about America’s Most Dangerous Enemies”, called out Pelosi over her behavior during the January 6 riot, according to an excerpt of his new book.
Miller wrote in his memoir that many lawmakers were “hyperventilating into the phone” that day while demanding to know if military forces were on the way to protect them.’
“Do I blame a bunch of geriatrics for acting like a bunch of geriatrics? Of course not. But do I judge them for it? You’re damned right I do. Most of all, I resent that we are ruled by a bunch of geriatrics that ruthlessly and selfishly maintain their hold on power and refuse to develop the next generation of leaders”, he added.
“As soon as it was her a** on the line, Pelosi had been miraculously born again as a passionate, if less than altruistic, champion of law and order”, he wrote.
Miller also writes that then-first lady Melania Trump played a critical role during the operation to target and kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, sitting in one of the most important chairs in the Situation Room and offering some advice to her husband at the time.
Miller says that the first lady’s presence in the room was “unexpected”, and she came in as her husband’s executive team was “waiting for the final assault” on the ISIS leader.
“Secretary of Defense Mark Esper quickly gave up his seat and she sat down next to the President, who introduced her to us as if we didn’t know who she was. Her presence was unexpected, to say the least. I wondered how it would play in the press if word got out that the First Lady had popped in to watch a major military operation. Not my problem, I figured. And after all, it was her house”, Miller wrote, according to an excerpt obtained by the Daily Caller, which added:
After a discussion about what may happen, Evans told the group that the US “assault force had unleashed their combat dog” into the building with al-Baghdadi, “with our commandos close behind”, Miller wrote. Al-Baghdadi was cornered and detonated a suicide vest, killing himself, his two children, and two of his wives.
Miller went on to describe the operation and the scene that day.
“The assault force commander wouldn’t declare ‘Jackpot’—the code word announcing that Baghdadi was dead—until the body was inspected. They would also take some tissue to check for a DNA match once they got back to friendly territory. [Then-deputy national security advisor Matt] Pottinger and I knew that some poor kid was searching through the dust-and smoke-shrouded rubble with his helmet-mounted lamp and handheld flashlight, trying to find Baghdadi’s head”, he wrote.
