Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped into President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying he appeared “sedated” during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Pelosi made the comment during her weekly news conference, in response to a question about whether she tore up a copy of Trump’s speech because he didn’t shake her hand.
“I extended a hand of friendship to him to welcome him as the president of the United States to the people’s house,” Pelosi said. “It was also an act of kindness because he looked to me like he was a little sedated. He looked that way last year too. But he didn’t want to shake hands. That was that. That meant nothing to me. It had nothing to do with my tearing up [the speech]. That came much later.”
More from Talking Points Memo: A notably animated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) decried President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Thursday, calling it a “manifesto of mistruths” and a “reality show” using the House of Representatives as a backdrop. “The whole State of the Union was beneath the dignity of the White House, an insult to the Congress of the United States and the American people,” she said at her weekly press conference, calling it a “state of his mind” address rather than the State of the Union. … She added that she felt “liberated” after shredding the document, that as soon as he was about one-third of the way through the speech she knew that she had to do something to show the American people that the address was full of falsehoods.
NBC News reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she felt “liberated” Thursday as she lashed out at President Donald Trump for the “falsehoods” that she said he spread in his State of the Union address on Tuesday and defended her decision to tear up his speech. “I tore up a manifesto of mistruths,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference, referring to the moment two days earlier when she ripped up the paper copy of Trump’s address to the nation once he finished speaking. “It was necessary to get the attention of the American people to say, ‘This is not true, and this is how it affects you,’” she said. “And I don’t need any lessons from anybody — especially the president of the United States — about dignity.”
Watch Pelosi’s full news conference below.
