Staff Reports
The January 6 riot on Capitol Hill has once again made headlines, thanks to House Speaker Mike Johnson releasing over 40,000 hours of footage to Fox News. And in that massive collection of videos, one compilation has caught everyone’s attention. This particular footage shows then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engaged in what appears to be a staged conversation. Cue the raised eyebrows and conspiracy theories.
The video in question was shared on a social media platform previously known as Twitter (seriously, what’s with the name change?). It consists of two separate clips, with the first one coming from the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. It features Pelosi and New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer standing together at 5:59 p.m., seemingly engrossed in a serious phone call.
Check this out pic.twitter.com/v8NghKVmRe
— 🔨Robert The Builder 🇺🇸 (@NobodymrRobert) November 19, 2023
Who’s on the other end of that call? None other than then-Vice President Mike Pence. The two are seen conferring with Pence about the next steps to take. Pence can be heard saying, “I’m at the Capitol building. I’m literally standing with the Chief of Police, of the U.S. Capitol Police” before the video cuts out momentarily. When it resumes, Pence mentions that the House and Senate are expected to reconvene in about an hour.
But that’s not where the video ends. The second clip, labeled as coming from CNN and credited to HBO, features the same dialog by Pence. The only difference? Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley now stands between Pelosi and Schumer. Interesting, right? The video stops and text appears on the screen, stating, “Exact same recording. Two different shots. One with Grassley—one without Grassley.”
Naturally, this apparent discrepancy has led to widespread speculation and claims of an elaborate hoax. Some social media users have even gone so far as to suggest that Pelosi orchestrated the entire event. However, Pelosi’s spokesperson, Aaron Bennett, wasted no time in dismissing these claims as “incoherent conspiracy theories.” According to Bennett, independent fact-checkers have already debunked such notions, and Pelosi certainly did not plan her own assassination. Well, that’s certainly reassuring. But it still leaves us wondering about the true nature of that phone call and the staging of the conversation. Something doesn’t quite add up, but perhaps we’ll never know the full story. Maybe this is just another political mystery to add to the ever-growing list.
