Nancy Pelosi bragged to cheering Democrats Wednesday morning about her ripping up Donald Trump’s State of the Union address while the White House blasted the speaker for the move.
Pelosi got a rock star welcome from her Democratic Party when she met with them in the Capitol Wednesday morning.
Lawmakers greeted her with thunderous applause and gave her a standing ovation when she explained why she ripped up the pages of text.
‘He shredded the truth so I shredded his speech,’ she said, according to reports.
‘You are supposed to talk about the state of the union,’ she noted of the speech, ‘not the state of your alleged mind.’
And her Democratic lawmakers defended her decision to rip up the speech.
‘As far as I’m concerned, a shredder wasn’t available, so she did what she needed to do,’ Congressman Hakeem Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.
Meanwhile, President Trump touted the ‘wonderful reviews’ he received for his State of the Union address.
‘It was a great and triumphant evening for our Country,’ Trump tweeted the morning after his third address, which saw more divisive moments than uniting. ‘Thank you for all of the nice remarks and wonderful reviews of my State of the Union Speech. It was my great honor to have done it!’
Trump was referring to Republicans’ reactions, considering the night was filled with ‘boos,’ groans and visible eye rolls from hundreds of Democratic lawmakers in the House chamber.
Following his tweet, he then reposted a myriad of positive reactions to the speech and other bashing Pelosi for tearing it in half.
After Trump finished his address Tuesday night, Pelosi took the pages containing the text of his speech off the desk in front of her and ripped it up, throwing it down to the side.
The move was made after Trump snubbed the House Speaker ahead of the speech – handing her a copy of his remarks and refusing to shake her outstretched hand.
The White House bashed Pelosi for responding by ripping up the official document, claiming she was taking a hit at all those honored that night by the president.
‘Speaker Pelosi just ripped up: One of our last surviving Tuskegee Airmen. The survival of a child born at 21 weeks. The mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller. A service member’s reunion with his family,’ the White House Twitter account posted following her shocking spectacle.
‘That’s her legacy,’ the post read.
Trump defender and Georgia Representative Doug Collins told Fox & Friends Wednesday morning that Pelosi had ‘symbolically tore up the Constitution’ when she ripped the speech.
But Pelosi defended destroying what she called the ‘manifesto of mistruths.’
The California Democrat tweeted Tuesday night: ‘The manifesto of mistruths presented in page after page of the address tonight should be a call to action for everyone who expects truth from the President and policies worthy of his office and the American people.’
Trump had several guests in the House gallery boxes, which is a tradition for the president.
A notable guest was one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, who saluted the chamber as Trump announced him. He received a standing ovation from both Democrats and Republicans.
The president also invited Carl and Marsha Mueller, who are the parents of a woman who was kidnapped and killed by ISIS during humanitarian work in Aleppo, Syria with the non-profit Doctors Without Borders.
While the president honored them during his State of the Union, they held up a picture of their late daughter.
Even though the speaker has received criticism from those on the right for disrespecting the night by ripping up the prepared remarks, she defended her decision, calling it a ‘dirty speech.’
‘I tore it up,’ she told reporters in the Capitol after the president concluded his remarks.
‘It was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives,’ she added. ‘It was such a dirty speech.’
The night – usually one of rituals and courtesies between the executive and legislative branches of government – was instead book-ended by jaw dropping moments with plenty of head-shaking ones in between.
Trump’s one hour and 20 minute speech felt more like a campaign rally than a federal government address. In between boasting about the American economy and his killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, Trump handed out awards and reunited a military spouse with her husband, freshly home from Afghanistan.
It was a combination of the moments Trump loves best: the made-for-television attention grabbing tactics with overly boastful claims of his accomplishments. And through it all Democrats sat and watched, mainly in silence, some so infuriated by the spectacle they left the chamber.
The speech was so contentious and divisive that Pelosi tore it up when the president was done speaking. As he left the dais, she ripped the pages in half and threw them down. And Democratic lawmakers fled the chamber in droves when Trump was done talking.
Afterwards she issued a lengthy speech doubling down in ripping up her speech. She called it a ‘manifesto of mistruths,’ accused him of misleading with his claims about health care and hinted that she had no regrets about impeaching him.
‘We are always hopeful when a President makes a State of the Union address. We welcome any opportunity to extend the hand of friendship to find common ground on behalf of the American people,’ she said.
But then, the statement went on: ‘We had been told the President would have a positive message on health care.
‘Once again, President Trump was not truthful about his actions in court to destroy pre-existing condition protections. Once again, President Trump pulled his punch on his promise to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices, which House Democrats delivered with the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, H.R.3.
‘Democrats continue to urge the President to abandon his assault on seniors and families and to join us to deliver real progress in lowering the price of prescription drugs and making the bold investments needed to rebuild America’s infrastructure in a green and modern way.’
She added: ‘The manifesto of mistruths presented in page after page of the address tonight should be a call to action for everyone who expects truth from the President and policies worthy of his office and the American people.’
That appeared to be a reference to the Democrats’ failed impeachment which will inevitably end on Wednesday afternoon in his acquittal.
The extraordinary clash started when with Trump snubbed Pelosi’s outstretched hand after he came into the House chamber.
Trump handed Pelosi a copy of his speech when he reached the speaker’s dais – the same place she presided over his impeachment vote two months ago – but simply turned away as the Speaker took her copy of his speech, then stood in front of a chamber which echoed with cries of ‘four more years’ from Republicans – and where Democrats sat stone-faced.
Pelosi was visibly taken aback after Trump turned away from her offer.
But the speaker got in a few zingers of her own, proving she can give as good as she gets and creating a few viral moments of her own.
Pelosi did not give Trump the typical introduction a speaker gives the president. Usually speakers say something along the lines of: ‘Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States’. Pelosi simply told the House Tuesday night: ‘Members of Congress, the president of the United States.’
That moment set the tone for the rest of the night. Pelosi, at times, was seen biting her lip or holding up a page of the president’s remarks close in front of her face and staring at it intently as the president launched zingers at his political enemies through bragging about policy accomplishments or attacking what the Democratic opposition wanted to do.
She shook her head when Trump claimed he saved the pre-existing condition provision of Obamacare, a law Pelosi fought to get passed and the president tried to dismantle.
At one point, Pelosi put down the text of the speech and simply shook her head.
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