Alexandra Pelosi discusses "The Insurrectionist Next Door" on "Real Time with Bill Maher"

In a segment plugging her new HBO documentary, Pelosi blames social media for programming people to hate

By Kelly McClure

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published October 21, 2023 11:09AM (EDT)

Still from "The Insurrectionist Next Door" (Courtesy of HBO)
Still from "The Insurrectionist Next Door" (Courtesy of HBO)

In the first segment of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night, Alexandra Pelosi — documentarian and daughter of former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi — discusses her latest film, "The Insurrectionist Next Door," in which she speaks directly with certain individuals who found themselves stalking the halls of the Capitol building two years ago. 

Referring to these people not as "bad," but as people who did a stupid thing on January 6 that they'll forever have to answer for, Pelosi points a finger at social media as a factor in how and why the insurrection played out the way it did.

"They're not bad people," Pelosi says to Maher. "They may have done some stupid things. They may be a little broken. They may be a little lost. But they have a different social media feed than you or I have."

Going into this a bit more, Pelosi tells an anecdote about one of the subjects of her film — who she calls "the gay Obama voter" —  calling her afterwards to say that his husband watched the movie and commented that he'd never seen footage of the violence in the tunnel before. 

"It's because they're on a different media feed than we are," she furthered. "They're not watching the same shows that we're watching . . . I think it's all about the social media and the way it's put everybody in their own little bubble. It's brainwashed them to believe that certain people are evil, and they've just been programmed to hate."

Watch a clip below:

 

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