Nancy Pelosi shouts ‘shut up’ at far-right reporter who asked accusatory January 6 question

A brief but viral exchange outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., this week revealed how deeply the battle over truth and conspiracy theories surrounding the January 6, 2021, insurrection runs.

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Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi snapped at a correspondent from Mike Lindell’s far-right media outlet, LindellTV, after being confronted with a question rooted in a debunked conspiracy theory that she somehow refused National Guard protection before the Capitol riot.

“Why did you refuse the National Guard on January 6?” reporter Alison Steinberg asked.

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Pelosi, visibly irritated, shot back, “Shut up. I did not refuse the National Guard. The president didn’t send it. Why are you coming here with Republican talking points as if you’re a serious journalist?”

The video, which has garnered millions of views online, rapidly spread across conservative media ecosystems, echoing a narrative that official investigations have repeatedly discredited.

What actually happened on January 6

The official record tells a far different story. The D.C. National Guard is not under the authority of Congress or its leaders, including the House speaker, but under the president, through the Department of Defense.

As detailed in the Defense Department’s timeline and the House Select Committee’s final report on the riot, then-President Donald Trump, not Pelosi, had ultimate control over the Guard.

The Guard’s commanding officer, Major General William Walker, reported to the Army secretary and Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, both Trump appointees.

Internal Pentagon testimony paints a picture of hesitation and fear of political optics, not obstruction from Congress. Military officials, still reeling from criticism over the aggressive federal response to 2020 racial-justice protests, imposed stringent limits on Guard deployment in Washington ahead of January 6. They were determined, they said, to avoid any appearance that the military was being used to influence the election’s certification.

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When the violence erupted, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund pleaded for backup. Yet senior Army officials debated the “optics” of soldiers in uniform defending the Capitol, delaying deployment for more than three hours. Guard troops finally arrived at around 5:30 p.m., long after the most intense fighting had ended.

Notably, the committee found no evidence that Pelosi had any role in authorizing or denying the Guard. In fact, her chief of staff immediately approved the police board’s request once notified during the assault, the report found.

"The Speaker’s chief of staff 'immediately scribbled down a note' and went over to inform the Speaker—who was in the chair presiding over the floor debate on the Arizona objections—about the request for the National Guard. 'Absolutely. Go,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. Later, as they were evacuating the floor to an undisclosed location, the Speaker asked her, 'Is the National Guard coming?' The Speaker’s chief of staff said, 'Yes, we asked them,''" the report found.

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The idea that Pelosi “refused” National Guard assistance has persisted largely through partisan media channels and social-media echo chambers, often used to deflect blame from Trump’s failure to act as the violence escalated.

LindellTV, founded by the My Pillow CEO and prominent election denier Lindell, has been a frequent vector for false claims about the 2020 election and the insurrection.