Alisa La

First, how do you describe what you did when you were there? What was your job?

I was the special assistant to Speaker Pelosi, so I was kind of known as the body person. So, keeping her on schedule, memos, briefings for every—try to stay one step ahead of her, even though she was five steps ahead of everybody else. But yes, I was like the body person.

What do you know about Nancy Pelosi that we don’t know about her? I'm not talking about secrets, but we all have an image of her. What's your sense and understanding of her that probably would feel fresh to me about her?

I think she's always—everything she does, she does 150%. So something that you and I would think is small or approach in a small way, she does not. She just goes 150%.

I'm trying to think of a good example. You know, like if you were—now we have a million Zoom meetings, right? We’re just like, "Oh, I've got a 2 o'clock meeting; I've got a 3 o'clock meeting." She’d be like, “No, what are we doing?” Everything is very purposeful, and she definitely approaches everything with the same amount of vigor as she would even passing a large infrastructure bill. So even a small meeting that you and I would be like, “Oh, it’s my 2 o'clock. No big deal.” She’d be like, "No, this is a big deal."

Why is she that way, do you think?

I think she knows that she kind of has the weight of the world on her shoulders and has that grand responsibility, not only being the first female speaker of the House but carrying all the power that she does, knowing that people are really listening when she's speaking. I think that’s why.

Now take me to Jan. 6, will you? That day in the morning, before hell broke loose around that place, what was it like in the office? What was she like? How were you all doing? …

So on the morning of Jan. 6, we’d all been preparing for the electoral count, which is typically very routine. But we knew that there would be objections, so we very much thought of it as, you know, this is about protecting democracy, this institution and all that. We didn’t even think about—and that was mostly focused on the floor debate and kind of all the procedural rules, and really that’s what we were focused on. We didn’t even think about what was happening outside.

Georgia was exciting. It gave us a jolt of energy. But I think all of our approach was that this was a solemn moment in our history, because we were prepared for 12 hours of debate, given all the objections that we were anticipating. So we wanted to approach it in a solemn way, because this is about institution, Constitution and democracy. So we were getting prepared for a very, very long, long evening, thinking that just with the normal procedural votes and given all the restrictions with COVID that we would be there until at least 2 or 3 in the morning, just normally. I don’t think any of us anticipated what would happen next.

How was she? Was she more serious than ever? Was she lighthearted in any way? What was her aspect?

So, I think, one, she was excited about Georgia, but then knew that we had just this task at hand that we had a constitutional duty to carry out. So while that was very exciting, and we all worked very hard on that, at the end of the day, we had a very solemn duty to finish out the constitutional count of the elector. I think that’s right. That’s how they say it. And so she was—I would say definitely understood the great responsibility we had to carry out the day. But we all just knew it would just be such a long day, and for a bit of a silly reason, in our opinion, to object to different—Arizona, Pennsylvania. Then you would also be objecting to your own electoral results as a member of Congress.

So it was a bit frustrating, because you knew we were just going to have 12 hours ahead of us because a small majority of people decided to carry out this "big lie," but that we were going to do it, and we were going to finish the job.

When she goes into the chamber, do you go with her, or do you stay back at the office?

So, because it was such a long day, we were actually—I always say that there's a small army of young people that staff the speaker, because nobody can keep up with her, so we always rotate in and out. So at the first kind of 1 p.m. gavel in, my colleague Emily actually was with her, and then I was kind of holding down the fort in the office, and we knew that maybe after two or three hours, I would switch back in. But we didn’t quite get there.

Yeah. When do you know, when do you first get a sense, Alisa, that there's trouble happening?

So, 1 o'clock they gaveled in. And I was like, OK, everything’s proceeding as normal. We knew that the first objection would be Arizona, and they do it alphabetically, so that came up actually rather quickly. And then once they separated the chambers, we kind of all took our deep breath and was like, OK, we’re in for it. This will be just a really long day. And then I started hearing some noises, but I was really—I was so focused on doing the work at hand, like we needed to make sure that we were getting members on the floor safely. Because of COVID, there were restrictions on the number of people that could be in the gallery.

So that was my focus. My focus was very much on actually doing my job. And then I just definitely started—I mean, I have a beautiful view in my office of the Washington Monument right off the speaker’s balcony. It’s probably the best view in Washington, D.C. But that day I could see, you know, more and more people coming. And at that time, I believe because of COVID, we were not allowing people to gather on the West Lawn, so I thought it was a little strange that they were gathering at the very beginning. And then when I physically got up to actually look out there and see how many people were there, I think I knew something was different.

We also had some—a little bit of a security presence in our office, and I could kind of see their pace pick up, their kind of demeanor change, even under a mask. So I kind of figured, this was not normal, even though there was actually somebody who did come in from the Capitol Police to ensure that I was OK, and he assured me that this was what they expected. And I looked at him. I was like, you really expected this, as I saw people running across the West Lawn. So I didn’t know if he was just trying to make me feel better or if he really believed what he was saying. And then the noises got louder and louder, and that’s when I knew something was probably—again, I really think that we were just all so focused on doing our job and that you would never expect, being in the United States Capitol, that anyone could break through. So it did take me a long time to actually even understand the gravity of how bad it was getting.

Yeah, we've talked to people who said they had always—they'd worked in the building a long time, and they thought, well, that’s bulletproof, shatterproof glass. There's double doors everywhere. Nobody could get in from outside. I'm probably in one of the safest buildings in the world, working in the U.S. Capitol building. Did you have a sort of similar feeling?

I definitely felt safe. This was the place I went to every day for five years, where the security presence is, I mean, omnipresent. What was really interesting, though, was the inaugural platform was built—so it was a little different. So once people started getting on top of the inaugural platform and that—there was a kind of reporter camera, very, very tall tower, and I could physically almost see people make eye contact with me, I was like, something is—you know, we were at eye level at that point, not close, but typically when I look out, it’s just the lawn, so I would be looking down at people. But I could physically see people looking right at me, so I started getting a little nervous.

So I had the TV on C-SPAN for the count, and I definitely had to switch over to see what was happening. And when I saw the images outside on the West Lawn and then at the front of the Capitol, I figured this was probably getting serious. And then I was getting correspondence from my colleagues who were with the speaker and their security detail, and they were saying, you know, we should be prepared to go into lockdown. And then around the Capitol, they have those emergency annunciators, and when those started going off, that was when we were really realizing the gravity of the situation. And so I had seven other of my colleagues in the speaker’s office with me.

And I realized, you know, I have this enormous responsibility to them, to keep them apprised of what was going on but also keeping them calm. So we started going around and saying: “All right, start gathering up your things. Know that if I do give you any direction, they are very serious, and I'm not joking around, and we should be really taking this rather seriously.”

Was there anything in the speaker’s office that you needed to protect? Any proprietary information? Anything that wasn’t locked up in a safe or ballots or anything that you would worry about protecting?

Thankfully we didn’t have any of the ballots. All those ballots were on the House floor, and they were actually the property of the Senate parliamentarian, which I only found out two days prior to Jan. 6. I mean, these are such procedural things that you never think about and that are almost routine. But it’s quite interesting. And I don’t think it’s really public knowledge that all those certifications and ballots are kept in the Senate parliamentarian’s office. So I found it very interesting in the weeks after Jan. 6 that the Senate parliamentarian’s office was torn up because they were looking for the ballots. So if anyone thinks that this was not planned, I think that’s a very good indication that it was.

So I sit right next to the speaker’s office. At that point, I kind of—stuff is stuff. She had her purse with her. She had her phone with her. There were no sensitive documents that I felt like I needed to protect. So at that point, I just locked every single door that I could think of, which is funny, because when you think about the Capitol and these double-paned glass doors and all that, the Capitol is still a very old, old building. All those doors are just wooden doors. So they were easily, easily broken through. So, you know, I know that they were able to get to every room that I potentially locked, or that I did lock, so didn’t help too much.

I mean, it’s like the temperature must be rising for you. It’s like being in water that’s warm and then getting warmer and hotter. At what point did you start to get actually scared?

So we were in constant communication with the speaker’s team, who was on the floor with her. And my colleague told me, “Once we say lock down, you have to lock down.” So we locked down. But that just meant that you were in your office, locked in, and I had seven other colleagues. I was actually the only one in my office space. And then I started calling my colleagues who were in the other rooms, and they were like, “You should not be by yourself over there.” And then those sounds got louder and louder. I mean, our offices are right above that tunnel where you see all those horrible images.

And then the noises—and then you heard the kind of—they weren’t gunshots. They were like flash bombs. And I was like—never heard that before. And then the annunciator kept saying, like, “Stay away from windows.” And I was like, there's a giant window right in front of me, where I can see all these insurrectionists, and so I realized I had to get out of my space and go join my colleagues. And then one of my colleagues who’d been working there for a really long time said, “We have to get into the safe room.” And I was like, safe room? And at that point, I didn’t care. I was like, yes, let’s just all be in one room together. Who knows what's going to happen?

So we get into one of our conference rooms, which was deemed a safe room, but it’s typically just a normal conference room. It has one door, one wooden door, and then a very, very small hallway, and then another wooden door. But the way the door was configured, it can’t be kicked in, so we felt rather—we were all trying to be very calm. I think we’re all type-A politico people that want to do our jobs. So we all—we’re in this room together and trying to remain calm, figure out what was—we really just had no idea what was happening.

There was no TV in that room. And then, I mean, I remember trying to play some music to just, like, try to calm us down, and it was elevator music, and it actually made us more nervous. So I know that from the impeachment trial, they actually timed it, but it was seven minutes until the last person got into the room was when people started entering the speaker’s office. And I could hear people coming in, the noises and then glass breaking, doors kicking in. And I was like, this is very bad. And then the menacing, like the: “Where's Nancy? Where's Nancy? We’re going to come get her,” and horrible, horrible things. That’s when I knew. I was like, oh, they're not here to just be rebels. They are here to hurt people. So then we turned the lights off.

Wait a second. What do you mean, hurt people? Really, like you felt in personal danger, like they're coming to get you?

Yes. So at first, it was like glass breaking, doors kicking in. I was like, OK, they're just trying to rabble-rouse, right? But when you heard that menacing, “Where's Nancy?,” and then they actually said, “Where are those people that work for her?" They used expletives but: “We’re going to get you. We know you're in here." So I definitely know they were trying to hurt people. And that’s really right after everything happened. It just looked like pictures, looked like this guy on her desk with his feet up and all that, and people kind of thought it was funny or that these people just were there to take selfies. But there was no doubt in my mind, when somebody screamed, “We know you're in here; we’re going to come find you,” that they were going to hurt people. And we were just so lucky that they didn’t get to us.

They got to the door for sure. So that first exterior door, they broke. And then they got to the door that we were all behind, and they started jiggling the doorknob and trying to break it in. And thankfully, that was only, I would say, 30 seconds, and then I think they just gave up. But yeah, that was—I mean, I can’t imagine how haunting it would be, if they were there for more than two minutes, you know, just knowing that they were on the other side of us.

Where were you? Were you hiding behind something, under something?

So we had a lot of our staff under a table, big, long conference room table, because at one point, there were shots fired, and one of the people—we had kind of like a silent text chain going on. And on Twitter, they said, “Shots fired in the Capitol,” and we were like, my God, they could shoot into this door. And so we all kind of went to the side and under the table. But for some reason, when the guy was there jiggling the doorknob, I was probably 10 feet away from the door, and I grabbed my colleague, and I was like: "What do we do? What do we do if they come in?"

I was trying to be so logical about it, because I knew that there were seven other people in the room. There's no time for emotion. I mean, what were we to do, cry and be scared? No. I was like, what logically can we do? How can we approach this in the most logistical manner and make sure everybody’s safe? And is there a way to hide more people so they only think that there's two people in here or something?

Sounds like a horror movie.

And I mean, this was in the Capitol, where I went to work every day. I consider myself a public servant. These were my fellow countrymen that were threatening violence on people they didn’t even know because of who we worked for.

Were you in touch with the speaker as she was taken to Fort McNair or as they were evacuated from the floor? Were your colleagues letting you know where they were going and what was happening?

My colleagues that were with the speaker told us that they had evacuated the Capitol to make us aware. And they—you know, she asked me who are you with? How many people are with you? Are you all in the same room? Let’s make sure everybody is safe and accounted for. But there was a little part of me that thought, you know, she's not here. The speaker’s not here. That’s good, because, I mean, I can hear those people. All they're doing is looking for her. But then I kind of thought, nobody’s coming for us. Made me a little nervous. But I knew that they were—they had told our security detail where we were.

That is why I felt so confident, that we were pretty in close touch with our security detail. I knew they knew where we were, and they pretty much said: “You're in the safest room possible, and you're in the safest situation possible, in the sense that if you walk out of that room, there's nothing we can do. There's nothing you can do.” So I tried to convey that to my colleagues. I mean, nonetheless, the noises and the haunting and taunting are things that I wish we could’ve been protected from, because I know that that probably sticks with them the most. But logistically, logically, there was no other place we could be.

So to know that you're just in a room and hearing the glass breaking and all that was just unsettling, but I knew that we were in the safest place we could be. Just a little unfortunate. And I know that every member of that security detail would've—I mean, I know they’ve told me that they wish they were there to come and get us. But, you know, at that point, if they were to even come get us, that would probably not be the safest option.

Do you have any doubt, Alisa, in your mind, given that you heard what the people were saying and you felt the vibrations of what they were like, that if they would've—what would've happened if they would've gotten their hands on the speaker?

So when I was in the room, before I saw the actual tape of what the people looked like when they were in the speaker’s office, I thought it was about 20 angry men that were just really upset and awful and angry. I thought it was 20 people. After seeing the tape, that it was hundreds of people running through, I mean, well—one, I thought, what would've happened if somebody did open the door? Would there be a mob mentality of like, "Let’s get them?," or would 50 of those people be like: “Oh, no, don’t hurt them. They're just kids, or they're just staff. Who are they?” Or would all of them have just said, “Oh, these are the people that are traitors,” and, you know, torture us and say, “Where is she?”

I mean, I don’t even think about. It’s never crossed my mind. If those people were to get to her or anybody or any elected leader—I mean, they're taking their own bodies and ramming them into doors and windows in order to get to these people. So they were already exerting violence and hurting themselves. I can’t imagine what they would do if they were hurting—or if they got face-to-face with a member. And then they were hurting the Capitol Police. So I don’t know. I don’t even think about it because I just—I couldn’t think about it. It would be horrible.

How long did it last?

We were in that room for about two hours.

Scared to death for two hours.

Yeah. I mean, I had a heart rate monitor on. And at one point, I think right when they got to the door, my heart rate shot up to like 200 beats per minute, what I would be at running at full speed, but I was just in a room sitting there. It was terrifying, and it was infuriating and defeating. I just remember texting my colleague who was with the speaker. I was like: "This is very traumatic for all of us. I think we really need to go home after this." It was like—yeah, for two hours, it was pretty horrible. And then we got ushered into the—once they kind of regained control of the Capitol, or at least the inside of the Capitol, they did extract us and get us to kind of where the other members from the floor were.

And when did you go back to the offices and discover the damages?

So we were in that kind of Ways and Means room where they kept all the other members. And I think we were just so shell-shocked, knowing that those were the members that were also on the floor, so what they just went through and what they just saw was horrible, too, but they had been there for two and a half hours, relatively secure. I don’t want to out-trauma people, but we were in a room for two hours, and then we got into another room. You know, it was a little frustrating, because you had some members who didn’t seem—they didn’t seem like anything happened, and then you had some people that you could see visibly that they were in complete shock and terror. So it was very odd to see that kind of two juxtapositions.

The people who didn’t seem to have any outward effects of it, were they of one particular political persuasion or another?

Yes, they were.

We went to—so by the time that the staff got there from the speaker’s office, we just plopped all of our things down. I mean, the room was rather full. And I looked and I realized why nobody had put their stuff down where we were was because we were right by all of the most controversial Republicans in the room. So that was even more infuriating to me, that we’d just been through this horrible moment in our lives, and then to turn around and see people giggling and laughing and passing the time by like it was nothing, and then to look out and see some members that were traumatized, it was a very weird situation to be in.

But I remember being completely upset, angry, frustrated. And I was really, really concerned for my colleagues. We were all concerned for each other. How's everybody doing mentally? Like, we’re all very, very strong people, but that was, I mean, life-altering. So for me, all I wanted to do was go home. And I felt so defeated. And then I know my husband wanted me to come home. My family was just like, get out of there. Whatever you can do to safely get home, but get out of that situation. And I actually think that—so after a while, there was—members were getting frustrated. They're like: “We’re just in this room. At least can we go to our offices? What's going on?”

So finally Speaker Pelosi and Leader [Steny] Hoyer and all of them get back from their undisclosed location and come and kind of visit us. But I've seen them speak a million times, and I kind of anticipated, you know, this'll be—I didn’t know. I just felt like, oh, this will be another speech that they make. And I couldn’t believe how much I needed to hear that. And that is real leadership, when you can—the speaker, the majority leader saying that we had to finish it. "We had to fulfill our constitutional duty; we have to finish our jobs. I understand everybody has just been through hell, but we have a job to do, and they can’t win." And immediately, I didn’t even flinch. I was like, "We’ve got to go back."

And it’s interesting to me that I could be in such a place where I was like, all I want to do is go home. Just get me out of here. My soul is broken. I don’t know why I do this. I remember being in the conference thinking like, is this what—this is public service? I'm going to die today for public service? I guess I'm OK with that. And then to go from feeling so defeated and wanting to go home, to having them say—and having the speaker stand up in front of everybody and say: “We have to finish the job. We cannot let them win. We have a job to do,” and this whole rush of energy came through me. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to go. I don’t care what time it is. Let’s just go. I haven’t eaten. I haven’t had water. I haven’t done anything. But she's right. We have a job to do. And that was my renewed sense of public service. It was just really interesting.

Pretty amazing that she did it and that she had that effect on all of you. Were you surprised?

Every single person in that room, every single person in that room, I would say, went back and did their job. I remember telling all of my colleagues, I was like: "You don’t need to be here. It’s 11 o'clock. Go home." They're like, "No, we have to see this out."

What was it about her? What was it about the way she said it? What did it?

I think she said it with such conviction. And that, you know, the thing about the speaker, she's also so caring. Everybody’s like, “She's a mother, she's a grandmother, but she's so tough.” I actually think that that balance that she has of being hospitable and such a lady, but then from Baltimore and can really spit it right back at you if you come at her, that actually that balance that day really served its purpose in the sense that she was so caring and understood and understanding about the trauma that we all went through—motherly almost—but then so tough to say, “But we have a job to do.” It’s almost like when your mom’s caring for you after you fall, but then you're like, you've got to get back up. And then for her to put just, such, that emphasis of like, "This is our constitutional duty; we have to do this." It was a sense of patriotism, too, that she invoked.

… The next day and for the next few days, it really feels like people we’ve talked to and stuff we've read, they say it really felt like she really took charge; that Trump was an ineffective president and there was nobody else; she was third in line to be president; that she picked up the phone and called [Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Gen. [Mark] Milley, tried to talk to Vice President Pence about the 25th Amendment. Was that the vibration around the office? Did you go back there the next day, and was it, you know, command central? Was that the way it felt?

So when we all went back to the Capitol to finish the count, I think, I applaud the custodial staff and everyone there. I mean, they tried their best to make it look somewhat normal. But, you know … there's tear gas on the ground. “Be careful: Don’t touch any powdery substance and touch your eyes.” Glass everywhere. They took everything that they could find and broke it in the hallways and all of that. This beautiful, pristine building that has so much history was just trampled all over. And then when we got back to the office, I mean, that was target number one, so everything was just broken and thrown and chaotic.

And then we have these beautiful fireplaces from 1901 with marble and gilded mirrors, and all the mirrors were bashed in, and it was very spooky and sad. I mean, it felt like a terrorist attack. But then to walk back in, know what they did, and then have this kind of reinvigoration to get the job done. It was solemn, but it was the same solemnness that we had that morning: the idea of, we are here to protect the constitution; we’re here to protect democracy; we’re here to protect this institution. I mean, you almost feel even more invigorated to do that, because you just watched people attempt to violently break it apart. So it was just—that energy was really interesting.

So when we came back—so everything was pretty much broken. And then we had to tell her, like, “OK, we’re going to start back up, get on the floor.” So we continue the—or we’re continuing debate, and then we get back together to finish the electoral count. And then they objected to Pennsylvania. And, I mean, it was just like, it was probably 2 in the morning at that point. I might be getting the time wrong. But I was like, "Come on, you're really going to object after all this?" So we did that. And then we got through it. And I was actually on the floor with her for a little bit. So I remember walking out, I want to say like 4 in the morning or something. And the speaker—I was getting all her stuff. And I typically walk her out to the car and get her home. And she, again, kind of displayed the caring—I hate to say motherly—but she said: “OK, y'all don’t have to come in tomorrow. Please don’t come in. Gosh, I’ll just come in and get my work done, and you guys don’t have to worry about me.” And I was like: "Speaker, we’re coming in. If you come in, we’re coming in." She's like: “No, no, I mean, I can do it. You guys just be available by phone. I can get everything done.” And we were going back and forth on what time to come in. She's like, “Don’t come in before noon.” And I'm like—so it was funny going back and forth with her. And I told her, and I wanted to be very reassuring to her and say: “Speaker, if you come in, we’re coming in. We have a job to do.” So she definitely was not happy about it. She really wanted us to stay home and kind of take the time. But I felt this—I knew she was coming in. She was determined to come in. And I said: "Well, I have to come in, too. This is my job." So that kind of—that strength and that energy to be like, we were just attacked; we need to respond.

So Jan. 7, we all came in. Granted, we came in a little late, because we all went to bed at 5 in the morning, but we came in in the morning, you know, really traumatized, but also riding on adrenaline. And she is always on adrenaline, I feel like, no matter what, any other normal day. But she was definitely very determined to get down to what happened and seek some justice. I mean, she could see it in our eyes. She came to—when we were going back to the Ways and Means room, right after she told everybody, “We need to finish our job,” she walked over to her own staff, and she could see how traumatized people were, especially some of our younger staff.

And she did a press conference right after Jan. 6, and I think what she said was so right, that you have people who come in with all this excitement and exuberance, these young people, thinking they're going to work for the government, be a public servant, and then to have this happen to them and to watch that kind of drain from their eyes is really sad, and we need to get down to what happened and why that happened and make sure it never happens again.

What was her reaction to what happened in her office, the note that was left? Did she see all of that? You know, the famous picture of the guy with his feet on her desk: Did she feel that her office had been defiled or something, and did she take it kind of personally? Or did she ever even see the mess that it was?

She definitely saw the mess. The mirror being cracked, I think, was left that way for about two weeks or something, just because it’s not—and it’s all just stuff. I mean, they definitely took things. They took like—you know, it’s the speaker’s office. You have awards and gavels and beautiful things that she's accumulated over the years, and they took it, you know? And even that day, she was like: “It’s just stuff. This is just stuff. What's more important is the people.” So I think it was jarring. But again, I think really coming back, just knowing that we had to finish counting, that was kind of what kept us going. So I don’t think she took it personally or anything.

Because if you think about it, the speaker didn’t get to see any of this, right? She was whisked away. Perhaps they had TVs where she was, but who knows? But she didn’t get to hear what we heard or see what we saw or any of that. And then I think when they were playing a lot of the evidence at the impeachment trial, that taunting, “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?,” that she was actually such a target, to see the video of people going into her office space, gleefully excited to know that they got to her office, I think that’s when it probably hit her the most, to really see it from that perspective.

And her reaction?

I mean, I always think about it like, how would you react if your life was being threatened at an impeachment trial on national TV for everyone to see? And I think one of the biggest things that we all think about from being in the conference room was, you know, the worry of our families and friends. It's interesting. People were sending me texts while I was in there and saying, “Are you OK? Are you OK?” And I was like, I don’t know if I'm OK, but I can’t tell them that, right? I can’t be like, "I don’t know if I'm OK." But then, I didn’t want to not answer either. So I think when you go through something like that or you watch your life threatened on national TV, you just are almost more worried about how your family’s feeling.

When she becomes so official, asking the general to guard against the nuclear stuff and everything, were you privy to those conversations? Did you hear them? Did you hear what she was talking about? Did you know how seriously she was taking it, that she was after getting Trump out of office and after Pence and wanting to secure America from nuclear weapons or the military coming up? Were you aware of the magnitude of what she was talking about?

I guess when you put it like that, no. So I knew that Jan. 7, Jan. 8, we were all there, and we were in protection mode almost. And also—it was protection mode. It was getting down to what happened, how could this have happened, holding people accountable. It was just—you know, so I, as her special assistant, place a lot of calls and do a lot of that. And I knew that she was just so determined to find out what happened. How could we not see this happening? I mean, she said it right after, at her press conference. She said, “The enemy is within.” And I think she was very determined to find out who that was and how that happened, and to ensure that it would never happen again.

And also, mind you, we’re two weeks away from the inauguration. There was that element of: They could do this again. They wanted to threaten the transfer of power; we are about to transfer power. So she was very determined to make sure that next transfer of power was smooth and peaceful.

OK. So the last question is, what does this story tell you about Speaker Pelosi?

So I think I go back to being in that room, completely defeated and traumatized, and watching her really speak from the heart, and "inspire" is not the right word, but invigorate us to go back and do our job. I mean, that is what leadership is. I think it’s so interesting. You have all these corporate seminars and master classes on leadership, and I am so proud that I got to work for a genuine leader. And then to actually watch it happen before my eyes. I was completely defeated. I was going home. I was ready. I had my car keys. I was ready to go. And she reinvigorated that little energy in me, that there's a reason I decided to dedicate most of my life to public service. You know, I love this country. I am a patriot. And she definitely was able to wake that up and invigorate that in me and get me—I mean, I went home at 5 in the morning that day, and I went back to work on Jan. 7.