HBO mum on why J6 documentary excluded footage of Pelosi admitting security failures

HBO eventually gave House Republicans video clips from filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi documentaries on the Jan. 6 riot, including her mother, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, taking "responsibility" for inadequate security, including the National Guard not being at the Capitol beforehand. But the cable TV network has still not given an answer about why those clips never made the final cut. 

“We're calling the National Guard now?" Pelosi is seen saying in one of the videos, amid the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. "They should have been here to start out."

In another clip, also received this summer by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, Pelosi is heard saying about those in charge of Capitol security, "I take responsibility for not having them just prepared for more."

The California Democrat's comments appear to undercut a key J6 narrative that then-President Trump was responsible for the Guard not being at the Capitol.

Trump said the day before the riot to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller that “they” were going to need 10,000 troops, according to a statement Miller provided to a House committee in May 2021. However, there is no evidence that Trump signed an order requesting 10,000 Guard troops, amid domestic law enforcement believing they had sufficient personnel, according to the Associated Press.

Alexandra Pelosi used footage shot Jan. 6 in not one but two HBO documentaries – “Pelosi in the House” and “The Insurrectionist Next Door.” The aforementioned clips didn’t make the final cut on either. 

When asked earlier this month for an explanation, HBO had no comment.

The request for all of the video was made by committee Chairman Barry Loudermilk in a May 23 letter to David Zaslav president and CEO Warner Bros Discovery Inc., the parent company of Home Box Office.

The video was given to the committee days later. Loudermilk after having received it also also argues the Democrat-led select J6 committee never archived all of the video.

The committee "spent about $20 million just trying to put blame on Trump," he said.

Veteran documentary filmmaker Vanessa Dylyn (“Covid Collateral,” “The Divided Brain”) argues the clips in question should have bowed on HBO, not Capitol Hill.

“This footage is essential to the story and, without question, should have made the final cut,” the Emmy-nominated Dylyn says. “Any serious documentary filmmaker or broadcaster would agree.”  

“The documentary runs the risk of being perceived as Democrat Party propaganda if editorial choices are made to protect Nancy Pelosi,” Dylyn adds. “Any daughter would protect her mother’s reputation and would be incapable of acting as a responsible journalist.”

Tom Neff, president and chief creative officer of the newly launched Documentary Channel.com, warns documentaries are not news.

“Documentaries take a ‘position’ with every camera angle, every question, every cut.  And the filmmaker has complete control over all of it, superseded only perhaps by a financer,” Neff says.

The mother-daughter connection can, and did, capture compelling moments that another filmmaker might miss, he notes of the final products. It also invites suspicion with audiences. 

“It is hardly a surprise that a daughter would want to portray her mother in as best a light as possible. That said, cutting out important information is blinding the audience in one eye,” Neff says. “I personally would have included any footage that adds to drama, but I’m not directing the film. To me, it’s all about the film. If you just think of the film, you’ll make the right decision.”

Filmmaker Eli Steele (“How Jack Became Black” and “What Killed Michael Brown?”) says the younger Pelosi made a mistake by omitting the footage in question.

“That moment revealed her mother's unfiltered reaction to the chaos unfolding around her. Capturing these moments are the essence of pure documentary filmmaking, cinema verité, so to speak,” Steele says. 

“The irony here is if she had put the controversial line in and had people from various sides of the political spectrum draw their own conclusions, she liked would have ended up with a better and more complex film -- a fate better than the one tarred with the charge of bias.”

Michael Pack, the director of “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” sees both sides.

“I don’t really think it is a conflict of interest as long as the relationship is disclosed,” the longtime PBS filmmaker says of the Pelosi ties. “On the other hand, the spate of worshipful, hagiographic documentaries about progressive leaders is totally one-sided, misleading trend.”

Pack adds that he would have included the excised footage in the final product but storytellers are under no obligation to do so.

Neff suggests HBO could still bring the newly released footage to life, if necessary. 

“Alexandra Pelosi’s documentary is not the final version of the story. Perhaps HBO will take another bite at the apple,” Neff said.