House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Jan. 6th Capitol riot an 'assault from within' during remarks in London, where she compar...
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Jan. 6th Capitol riot an 'assault from within' during remarks in London, where she compared the events to the Sept. 11th attacks days after the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Speaking at Chatham House, the London-based think tank Friday, Pelosi described the riot not as a failing of democracy but of former President Donald Trump.
She said both events were 'assaults' she termed 'horrible,' crediting social media companies and Trump with fueling the Capitol riot on the day Congress met to count electoral college votes.
'We do not see January 6 as a failure of the Democratic democratic system in the United States. We see it as the actions of a president who do not respect the oath of office that he took or the office that he served,' she said.
Her comments about Trump came after she was quoted in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book, Peril, telling Gen. Mark Milley two days after the riot, regarding Trump: 'He's crazy. You know he's crazy.'
'Thank you Facebook for to sell 2 million members of QAnon,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at an event at Chatham House in the UK. She blasted social media groups for allowing the spread of conspiracy theories while slamming former President Donald Trump for fomenting the Jan. 6th Capitol riot
Pelosi also went after social media companies for failing to find sufficient ways to police their sites for extreme content.
She swatted at Facebook for allowing the proliferation of QAnon conspiracy theories on its platform.
'This president, that president he did not create those problems I mentioned, but he galvanized them. And this is what you have to be aware of every place. He galvanized them, and the social media ... enabled that to happen. Social media, 2000 –2 million QAnon, Finding like minded thinking people in that in that world, in the social media.'
She referenced a Facebook internal audit that identified millions of users who backed QAnon conspiracies
Supporters of US President Donald Trump, including member of the QAnon conspiracy group Jake Angeli, aka Yellowstone Wolf (C), enter the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. - Demonstrators breeched security and entered the Capitol as Congress debated the a 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote Certification
Then, she sneered: 'Thank you Facebook for to sell 2 million members of QAnon. So we have to look at how social media [is] a blessing, but a double edged sword,' she added.
She was referring to an internal Facebook audit that concluded millions of users follow QAnon conspiracy theories.
In comparing the riot to the Sept. 11th attacks, she mentioned the recent marking of the 20th anniversary of the event.
'But it was a horrible, horrible, horrible day for our democracy, there's no question about that. Strength of our democracy is how we would deal with it. But as I suppose I just go back to where we were last weekend. Many of us gathered in New York for the 9/11 [anniversary]. Now that was an assault from outside. What happened on January 6 and assault from within. Horrible in both cases,' she said.
Pelosi is in the UK for a meeting of G7 heads of parliament, but spent Thursday with Cambridge University students and in meetings with British officials
Pelosi arrived at Number 10 Downing Street for a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the evening
She extended sympathy to victims, including UK citizens who perished in the attacks.
Pelosi travelled to the U.K. this week for a meeting of G7 heads of parliament.
On Thursday she addressed the Cambridge Union, where she told students that Trump would take his place in American history as a two-time loser if he ran for the White House again in 2024.
'I don't ever talk about him,' she said, before proceeding to talk about him - although without using his name.
'I reference him from time to time as "What's His Name,"' she continued.
'If he wants to run again, he'll be the first president who was impeached twice and defeated twice.'
While in London, she visited Number 10 Downing Street for a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson about Anglo-American relations.
She posed on the step outside the famous black door with her husband before entering.
She said a breakdown in talks over Northern Ireland would be 'problematic' for a U.S.-UK trade deal being negotiated in the wake of Brexit.
She said it would be “very unlikely” for the two nations to reach a trade agreement 'if there is destruction of the Good Friday accords' due to the deal.
No comments