Nancy Pelosi showed who she was during the Jan. 6 riot. We're better off for it.

At the final hearing this week of the House January 6 Committee, Americans saw for the first time a behind-the-scenes video of congressional leaders trying to protect the lives of their colleagues and staff.

The videographer is documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She was reportedly there to film a historical day when the House would certify the election of the next president of the United States, Joe Biden. Instead, the filmmaker with exquisite access to congressional leadership captured the harrowing hours after rioters breached security and invaded the Capitol.

Footage of Nancy Pelosi is garnering the most attention, and not just because she was the primary focus of her daughter’s lens. In the middle of the chaos, she was calm and centered. She was committed to saving lives, but she was also determined to reassure the American people that she and her colleagues would complete their Constitutional duty that day.

“There has to be some way that we can maintain the sense that people have,” she told others in the room, “that there is some security or some confidence that government can function and that we can elect the president of the United States.”

We watch as she receives updates, one worse than the next. This was one of her exchanges with a staff person:

Pelosi: “Did we go back in session?”

Staff: “We did go back into session but now apparently everybody on the floor is putting on their gas masks to prepare for a breach. I’m trying to get more information.”

Pelosi, leaning toward her. “They’re putting on their?”

Staff: “Tear gas masks.”

Pelosi turns to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn “Do you believe this? Do you believe this?”

There is also footage of Pelosi and Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the phone demanding more police and troops – and that President Donald Trump call off the rioters. Pelosi also checked in with Vice President Mike Pence, to make sure he was safe, and to lay out the game plan. “We’re trying to figure out how to get this job done today,” she told Pence.

In the film footage, the closest she comes to losing her cool is early in the siege, when a senior aide tells her the Secret Service rebuffed Trump’s demand to go to the Capitol.

“I hope he comes,” Pelosi says. “I want to punch him out. This is my moment. I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I want to punch him out, and I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.”

Social media lit up over that. Lots of references to her various personal roles to explain why she’s tough: She’s the mother of five! She has nine grandchildren! She grew up in Baltimore! Her father was mayor! She’s Italian!

It is not lost on me that Schumer, also a leader that day, was not heralded for being a devoted father and grandfather, as I know him to be. No talk of his family roots. He is seen for who he was that day: the leader of the Senate, concerned for the lives of his colleagues and their staff who were still trapped in offices as the insurrection raged.

Like most women, Nancy Pelosi is many things. On January 6, 2021, she was what our country needed most. She was a leader.

Later that evening, she walked through the ruins of the failed coup and stood next to Vice President Mike Pence for the joint session of Congress. When she left, there was no doubt that Joe Biden would be the next president of the United States.

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