Pelosi says Capitol riot was one of the most difficult moments of her career

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday that the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection was one of the most difficult moments of her career, comparing it to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

During a virtual fundraiser on International Women’s Day, the Speaker was asked by inaugural poet Amanda Gorman about “the hardest moment of your career so far.”

“It was a very difficult moment for us in the Capitol and those who care about our democracy … that people would descend on the Capitol, incite insurrection to overturn the process,” Pelosi said.

“That people would use violence upon the Capitol, even out to kill, really members of Congress and the vice president of the United States was just so very hard,” she added.

The California Democrat said “what made it even harder” and “even more painful” was when Congress reconvened late that night “that many of our colleagues voted not to support the results of the election.”

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who also appeared at the fundraiser, had answered Gorman’s question first, saying 9/11, which came when she was a first-term senator for New York, was the hardest moment for her. 

Pelosi responded to Clinton’s answer, saying, “That moment sticks out.”

“For all of us, 9/11 will be one of those moments,” she said, emphasizing that the 2001 attacks were not “eclipsed by” the raid on the Capitol this year.

On Jan. 6, a crowd of former President Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol building as Congress was debating the Electoral College vote showing President Biden’s win. The resulting riot directly led to five deaths, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. 

Since then, the Justice Department has charged more than 300 people for their alleged roles in the raid. 

Monday’s fundraiser, featuring Pelosi and Clinton, centered around women in politics, with the money going to Clinton’s Onward Together Committee and Pelosi’s PAC to the Future.