Nancy Pelosi says violence of Jan. 6 "didn't end that day"

Washington — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, "didn't end that day," accusing President-elect Donald Trump of stoking continued violence in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol. 

"He called out to these people to continue their violence, my husband being a victim of all of that," Pelosi said Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

Pelosi, a frequent recipient of Republican ire who was among the targets of some of the rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, connected the events of that day to an attack on her husband the next year, noting that her husband still suffers from a head injury after a man broke into their San Francisco home and bludgeoned him with a hammer in October 2022. 

"To see the threat to so many people in elective office going beyond me," Pelosi said. "It shouldn't be a threat to your family that you have chosen to do public service."

Her comments come as lawmakers are gathering Monday to certify Trump's victory in the 2024 election, four years after a violent mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol to prevent Congress from affirming President Biden's 2020 win. Meanwhile, Trump has continued to claim that he won the 2020 election, while pledging in the first moments of his term that he will pardon some of those who participated in the Jan. 6 attack. 

Pelosi says Trump is a "strange person" for pledging to pardon Jan. 6 rioters

Pelosi called Trump a "strange person" for pledging to pardon some of those who were engaged in the attack on the Capitol, though she acknowledged that Trump pledged to make the pardons on a case-by-case basis, adding that "I hope he does."

Still, the California Democrat said "it was a tragedy, and we cannot be in denial about what it was," while urging Americans not to be "conned."

"To the American people, this is what this is about. Do not be conned by the denial of the election of 2020." Pelosi said. "And then on top of that, the denial of what happened on Jan. 6."

Pelosi said it's "almost sick" that Trump may continue to think he won the 2020 election. She made clear that Congress would accept the results of the 2024 election on Monday.

"So he should be triumphant about that," Pelosi added. "But to be still trying to fight a fight that he knows he lost is really sad."