Pelosi wondered if Mike Pence 'could even trust the Secret Service' to keep him safe on January 6
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had concerns about whether the Secret Service could be trusted on January 6.
- She wondered whether Vice President Mike Pence could trust the agents to take him to a safe place.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi worried about whether the US Secret Service could be trusted to keep Vice President Mike Pence safe on January 6, 2021, as a mob of Trump supporters threatening to hang him stormed the Capitol.
During a phone call that day, Pelosi said the then-vice president told her that if he left the Capitol, his entourage would attract more attention.
"I myself wondered if he could even trust the Secret Service to take him to a safe place," Pelosi said Tuesday on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." "I don't know.
She continued, "But I do know that he was in danger in the Capitol, and I wanted to be sure that he was protected. He was the vice president of the United States."
Rioters at the Capitol hoped to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in favor of President Donald Trump after the president blamed Pence for not throwing out electoral votes for Joe Biden.
A Secret Service spokesperson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Video of Pelosi's phone call with Pence was aired in part during the October 13 hearing of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot and later that night on CNN.
In the video, shot by Pelosi's daughter, Pelosi told Pence she worried about him being in the Capitol building that day and told him during a phone call, "Don't let anybody know where you are."
Pence did not leave the Capitol that day and refused to get into an armored limousine. "I'm not getting in the car," he told his lead security agent. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said learning that he stayed inside the complex as insurrectionists stormed the building was "chilling."
The Secret Service is facing scrutiny for losing countless records from January 6, reportedly including agents' texts.
Pelosi also on Tuesday reacted to the news that the Secret Service withheld threats toward her for days before the riot. She said that thinking is "inconsistent with the other aspects of security that I have."
"But you would think that they would have told us to protect everybody else," she said.
Pelosi said she would "never forgive" the people who stormed the Capitol for traumatizing staffers, news media, and the maintenance crews.
"This was a disgrace," she said. "And the president instigated an insurrection, refused to stop it and, as those films show, would not, in a timely fashion, allow this — the National Guard to come in and stop it. And that is sinful."