House Republicans along with former President Donald Trump have attempted to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for a lack of security on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump specifically claimed that both Pelosi and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser didn't do enough to prepare for the violent attacks from his supporters.
“There’s questions into the leadership within, the structure of the speaker’s office, where they denied the ability to bring the National Guard here," McCarthy said at a news conference, on July 27, 2021. "We start with a committee chair who will tell you, ‘Everything’s on the table except the speaker’s office.’ How can you ever get to the bottom of the questions? How can you ever get to the solutions to make sure the Capitol is never put in this position again?”
Both Pelosi and Bowser requested National Guard troops assist local police on the ground where the rally was taking place, the Washington Post fact-checked last year.
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During the same press conference, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) echoed the blame on Pelosi, saying she was "made aware of potential security threats to the Capitol and she failed to act. It is a fact that the U.S. Capitol Police raised concerns and rather than providing them with the support and resources they needed and they deserved, she prioritized her partisan political optics over their safety.”
Letters and testimony of Steven A. Sund, the U.S. Capitol Police chief; Paul D. Irving, the House sergeant-at-arms, and Michael C. Stenger, the Senate sergeant-at-arms proved that they were the decision-makers when it came to security that day and that there were no indications Pelosi wasn't involved.
The new book by New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin revealed that McCarthy actually told his own Republican caucus that he was the one working with the sergeant at arms.
"Debbie Lesko of Arizona, a pro-Trump conservative, said she had asked House leaders to 'come up with a safety plan' because there could be hundreds of thousands of people pouring into Washington," the book This Will Not Pass states. "Expressing fear about the left-wing group Antifa, she wondered aloud: Should members get special transportation or police escorts back to their homes? But Lesko wasn’t just musing about threats from the far left."
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“We also have, quite honestly, Trump supporters who actually believe that we are going to overturn the election,” Lesko said according to the book. “And when that does not happen—most likely will not happen—they are going to go nuts.”
McCarthy reportedly told Lesko "that he was in touch with the sergeant at arms and 'they’re preparing ahead of time' on the security front."
Last week, Pelosi told the press that the new recordings of McCarthy highlight the hypocrisy over his concerns about lawmakers’ safety after Jan. 6.
“It was interesting to me that the leader talked about the concern that he had — if in fact, those were his words — which that’s up to you to decide," she said. "That he was concerned about his members causing danger here and at the same time complaining that we have magnetometers to keep guns off the floor of the House. It just seemed inconsistent to me."
Raw Story has reached out to the Speaker's office for comment but has not heard back.