A video filmed on Jan. 6, 2021, shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with a mask around her chin, threatening to “punch him out,” referring to then-President Donald Trump.
The footage, which first aired on CNN Thursday, was captured by Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, a documentarian who was working with HBO, according to The Washington Post.
In the video, Pelosi is seen watching crowds gather near the U.S. Capitol before her chief of staff, Terri McCullough, provides an update on the situation.
“The Secret Service said they have dissuaded [Trump] from coming to Capitol Hill. They told him they don’t have the resources to protect him here. So at the moment, he is not coming, but that could change,” McCullough says.
“I hope he comes. I want to punch him out,” Pelosi responds. “This is my moment. I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I want to punch him out, and I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.”
Someone in the background adds, “I would pay to see that.”
In the aftermath of the Capitol breach, Pelosi said she would have fought the violent demonstrators if they had managed to locate her in the building, calling herself “a street fighter” during an interview with USA TODAY.
Federal prosecutors have suggested that both Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence were targets for the demonstrators, with some saying the mob was seeking to kill the lawmakers.
“That’s what they were setting out to do,” Pelosi told USA TODAY. When asked if she was frightened by the potential violence, Pelosi added, “Well, I’m pretty tough. I’m a street fighter. They would have had a battle on their hands.”
Pelosi then lifted her foot in the air revealing four-inch-high stilettos and jokingly said, “I would have had these” to use as weapons.
Pelosi added that she was never truly afraid for herself because she is surrounded by “so much security,” but she was “afraid for everybody else.”
