Nancy Pelosi’s Daughter Finds the Humanity in Jan. 6 Insurrectionists
In HBO’s The Insurrectionist Next Door Alexandra Pelosi comes across as a charming and sympathetic bull in a china shop, eager to understand, find common ground with or at least provide a platform for people with whom she agrees on very little. That would be nearly everyone she talks to here. The veteran documentarian (Journeys with George, Fall to Grace) wants to know what compelled those who took part in the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, and how they might feel about it all now that they’re facing prison time(or, in some cases, have already served). The film, premiering Oct. 15, is an exercise in radical open-mindedness, punctuated by the fact that many of the insurrectionists shouted their desire to do very bad things to the filmmaker’s mom, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
“Did you go to the Capitol to assassinate my mother?” Pelosi asks Emily Hernandez, whose story is among the saddest told in the 75-minute film: convicted in the Capitol case after she joined her uncle in the mayhem, she later killed a woman in a drunk driving accident. There’s an edge to Pelosi’s voice, but she also seems to be joking, at least a little. Pelosi appears to genuinely enjoy engaging with her subjects, and they generally seem to reciprocate and appreciate the opportunity to share their stories. The accounts and motives vary, but most of them boil down to a few essential explanations: They didn’t really comprehend the severity of their crimes. They got swept up in the moment. It sounded fun at the time.
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These people aren’t the Enrique Tarrios or Stewart Rhodeses of the world, insurrectionist leaders who will be spending big chunks of their remaining lives behind bars. Most of them are impromptu foot soldiers and tourists. Yet most of them maintain their loyalty to Donald Trump and insist they chose to do what they did, and that no one else is responsible for their actions. They’re probably right. “I’m not the brightest,” says Cory Konold, who joined the siege with his sister, Felicia, who Pelosi suspects might not be telling the whole truth about just stumbling into the company of some Proud Boys that day (“She does have a history of lying,” Cory tells Pelosi). To paraphrase Benicio Del Toro’s character in The Way of the Gun, this wasn’t really a brains operation. Cory also tells Pelosi that he doesn’t think the election was stolen, and that – gasp – he voted for Joe Biden. The things we do for our siblings.
The Insurrectionist Next Door is both comedy, thanks largely to the fact that Pelosi has no interest in hiding her incredulity, and tragedy, in that she locates the humanity in these people who made some horrible decisions on the basis of a loudly propagated fiction, and will be paying for the rest of their lives. You can tell she kind of likes these folks, no matter how kooky or scary they get. “You’re a domestic terrorist,” she tells Johnny Harris, who lays out his detailed fantasy theory of how the entire event was a false flag planted by antifa. “I’m your favorite domestic terrorist,” he responds. “Get it right.”
Some might object to the notion of providing a platform to, well, domestic terrorists. But there’s a lesson in The Insurrectionist Next Door about how people who do dumb and dangerous things, and might represent the country’s darkest impulses, are still people. Many of Pelosi’s subjects come from badly broken homes; some have already done jail time for other crimes. You might not care about any of this, but Pelosi suggests you should.
The most resonant case here is Ronnie Sandlin, currently serving five-and-a-half years for assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. He screwed up bad. But Pelosi’s interviews with him over the phone from prison, which begin the film and end it, reveal a terrified young man who still doesn’t seem to entirely know what happened. One minute he was filming himself drinking beers with friends at a D.C. TGI Friday’s; the next he was making irreversible mistakes and throwing his life away. Life does indeed come at you fast.
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