Pelosi says Trump 'projects onto others' his own blame for January 6: 'There's a sickness here'

• Rep. Nancy Pelosi on Sunday pushed back against Trump, who blamed her for January 6.
• The former president falsely claimed Pelosi rejected a request for troops to protect the Capitol.

Former President Donald Trump is projecting when he blames others for the January 6 insurrection, Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Sunday.

"The former occupant of the White House has always been about projection. He knows he's responsible for that, so he projects it onto others," the California Democrat told MSNBC. "His instigation of an insurrection... the assault on the Capitol building, the assault on the Constitution, the assault on our democracy — shame on him."

Pelosi's comments came after Trump claimed in an interview aired on NBC that he had requested 10,000 National Guard troops to defend the US Capitol from his supporters, only for the former House Speaker to reject them.

No record of such an order exists, however, and on the day of the insurrection, Trump never placed any call for troops to defend the Capitol, even after it was breached ("I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature," then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said in a deposition last year regarding the 10,000-troop claim).

Pelosi, who can be seen on video calling for security reinforcements on January 6, argued it was Trump's fault for not stopping the violence aimed at blocking President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.

"Chuck Schumer and I begged him to send the troops, again and again," she said Sunday. "They know their exposure," she said of Trump and his acolytes, "so they project."

Pelosi continued: "These Trumpites were attacking the Capitol, fighting the police, threatening my life and the life of the vice president — [and] we're turning down the troops? There's a sickness here and there has to be an intervention. And that intervention has to be the [2024] election, which we have to win."