Nancy Pelosi nearly wrapped herself in the Ukrainian flag during Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech before Congress on Wednesday. But what she doesn’t want you to see is how her office is culpable for the lack of security on January 6, 2021.

The January 6 Circus Committee was to have released its final report on Wednesday, outlining the criminal charges they want to bring against former President Donald Trump. But they didn’t. Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) appeared on PBS NewsHour to explain why.

He blamed it on “printing issues at the government printing office.” Let’s be real here — Raskin knew that Zelenskyy was going to suck all the oxygen from the room, and he didn’t want the Ukrainian president to steal the committee’s thunder.

So while House Democrats were fawning over Zelenskyy, the January 6 committee members were probably muttering, Damn that guy! 

Meanwhile, a group of Republican House members said, Hold our beer!

House GOP members Jim Banks (R-IN), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) and Troy Nehls (R-TX) were supposed to have sat on the Jan. 6 committee — that is, until Nancy Pelosi vetoed Banks and Jordan. After House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled the other three, Pelosi then installed Trump-hating Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to provide a Republican echo chamber.

Now those five congressmen have issued their own report. It’s chock full of emails, text messages, and interviews which provide evidence as to Pelosi’s lackadaisical handling of Capitol security. The report went public late on Wednesday.

Partisanship, Incompetence, and Indifference

Rep. Jim Banks said the report provides damning confirmation on how Pelosi failed to maintain a proper security presence during the riots:

“Our report exposes the partisanship, incompetence and indifference that led to the disaster on January 6 and it the leading role Speaker Pelosi and her office played in the security failure at the Capitol.”

Here are some of the key findings from the Report of Investigation: Security Failures at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021:

• “The Speaker of the House and Democrat leadership were closely involved in security decisions in the lead up to and on January 6, 2021.”
• “The House Sergeant-at-Arms took direction from staff in the Office of the Speaker of the House and intentionally excluded Republicans from key meetings and conversations related to House security.”
• “The House Sergeant-at-Arms was compromised by politics … and did not adequately prepare the Capitol for possible violence.”
• “US Capitol Police did not give officers the appropriate training necessary to … protect the Capitol from violence.”

You can read the entire report here.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0.

One anonymous officer told the investigators that they didn’t receive regular training on lethal weapons:

“Obviously, we do firearms twice a year, but that’s about it for training on our equipment. Baton should be, at minimum, once a year. I mean, it’s a piece of equipment where we could actually hurt or kill somebody with, and we’ve never trained on it.”

As for uniforms, another officer said he didn’t have a helmet, only a baseball cap:

“Baseball cap. I mean, that’s pretty much our equipment now. Which I had on January 6, was nothing, was my baseball cap.”

Not only that, but a Department of Justice memo from a Judicial Watch lawsuit showed that the Capitol Police didn’t have the numbers they needed. They operated with “less than half” of the staff that’s “usually assigned” for the House’s “normal staffing for a joint session.”

Lack of proper training and equipment, inadequate numbers, and politically tainted — what could possibly go wrong during a storming of the Capitol?

Nancy Pelosi Cared More About Optics Than Security

According to the report, Pelosi and her Democrat colleagues had greater concerns about optics than public safety.

From the report:

“There was also serious concern about optics leading up to and on January 6, 2021. Chief (Steven) Sund testified that (Sergeant-at-Arms Paul) Irving said “optics” were the reason for not sending in the National Guard.”

Also …

“Concerns about the optics of military personnel close to the Capitol were shared by Democratic staff in the House of Representatives. On January 5, 2021, a Democratic staffer … emailed Irving about the placement of National Guard troops. The Democratic staffer said, “I only ask to be ahead of any members who might question a photo or live tv shot that shows National Guard with the Capitol dome in the backdrop.”

Blame this attitude on “widespread concern from Democratic leadership over ‘optics’ in the aftermath of the Summer 2020 ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests.” It “prevented early deployment of the National Guard.”

But Nancy Pelosi washed her hands of any culpability. “I have no power over the Capitol police,” she told reporters one month after the riots.

Pelosi Has Some ‘Splainin’ To Do

The House of Representatives will have a new Republican majority shortly. And Reps. Jim Jordan and Troy Nehls want Nancy Pelosi to testify about her failure to secure the Capitol.

Jordan told Just the News:

“The reason there wasn’t a proper security presence on that day goes right to the Speaker’s staff and the Speaker’s office.”

Moreover, Troy Nehls said that he had interviewed a former DC National Guard Commander. The commander said that had they been called to the Capitol on January 4 — when police had asked for help — the riot wouldn’t have happened.

Nehls told Just the News:

“He said if his men would have been here, January 4, then January 6 would have never ever happened.”

Nehls added:

“As for Nancy Pelosi, you do have questions that that you need to answer.”

So let the January 6 Committee release their final report. The American public won’t care, not with Christmas coming in a few days. Besides, they’re weary of the drama, anyway. As for the new report damning Nancy Pelosi and her security failure — she may have to testify before the bulldog Jim Jordan, who will become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in January.

Looks like the Sturm und Drang that the Democrats launched with their January 6 Committee may come back to bite them. Because karma is … well, you know.

Featured image: Gage Skidmore/flickr/cropped/CC BY-SA 2.0.