Pelosi says she’ll ‘never forgive’ Trump, ‘lackeys’ over Jan. 6

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Wednesday she would “never forgive” former President Trump and his “lackeys” for the “trauma” that Capitol Hill staff experienced during the Jan. 6 riot.

A mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol that day as a joint session of the House and Senate considered the Electoral College vote, forcing the evacuation of lawmakers. The event led to Trump’s second impeachment.

“I’ll never forgive president — former president of the United States and his lackeys and his bullies that he sent to the Capitol for the trauma that he — that wasn’t what was exerted on our staff.”

“These are young, largely younger people who come with the idealism to work in the Capitol on either side of the aisle and whatever it is. And for us to sign up for this when we run for office, it’s bad enough for our families to see the danger we’re in,” Pelosi said during her news conference.

The riot and its fallout continues to shadow Congress, as a special panel formed by the House investigates what led to the storming.

Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff under Trump, on Tuesday indicated that he would not be appearing before a scheduled deposition in front of the Jan. 6 select committee. 

Members of the panel have signaled they will move to hold Meadows in contempt.

“There is no legitimate legal basis for Mr. Meadows to refuse to cooperate with the Select Committee and answer questions about the documents he produced, the personal devices and accounts he used, the events he wrote about in his newly released book, and, among other things, his other public statements,” the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), said in a letter to Meadows’s attorney on Tuesday. 

“The Select Committee is left with no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Mr. Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution,” he added.

–Updated on Dec. 9 at 6:00 a.m.