The Jan. 6 select committee aired previously unseen footage from Fort McNair, the DC-area Army base where congressional leaders took refuge during the insurrection and scrambled to respond to the unfolding crisis.
Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said during the hearing that the footage shows how Trump administration officials and congressional leaders worked around then-President Donald Trump to put down the riot that he had incited.
The footage shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top officials working the phones and coordinating with Trump Cabinet members and other officials to secure the resources needed to quell the insurrection and secure the Capitol.
The footage also showed two phone calls between Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who took on an impromptu leadership role on January 6, coordinating the emergency response.
The new footage showed Schumer dressing down then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. During their heated phone call, Schumer implored Rosen to intervene directly with Trump, and tell Trump to call off the mob. During the call, Pelosi told Rosen that the pro-Trump rioters were “breaking the law… at the instigation of the President of the United States.”
“The concern that we have for personal safety transcends everything,” Pelosi told Rosen.
Pelosi is seen on the phone with then-Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, discussing getting the state’s National Guard dispatched to the Capitol.
During the hearing, the panel labeled the footage as showing lawmakers at an “undisclosed location.” It has been public knowledge since January 6, 2021, that senior congressional leaders from both parties took refuge at Fort McNair, an Army base in DC, while the Capitol was overrun.
Coverage note: CNN has obtained additional footage from Fort McNair that wasn’t shown by the committee.
The exclusive footage will air on CNN on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, during a special edition of “Anderson Cooper 360°.” The footage shows congressional leaders, after evacuating from the Capitol, gathering at Fort McNair working the phones, trying to figure out what was going on at the overrun Capitol, and begging for help as they frantically scrambled to quell the insurrection.
Watch the new footage of congressional leaders taking refuge on Jan. 6:
