House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t take it well when a CNN anchor on Tuesday questioned if she was putting anti-Trump politics over the American people in negotiations over coronavirus relief legislation.
The meltdown: During the interview, Wolf Blitzer pressed Pelosi on why she hasn’t worked with President Donald Trump to pass another aid package.
- Video of Pelosi’s imperious — and at times bizarre — reaction has been viewed several million times on Twitter.
- Conservative commentators, like Tim Young, have pointed to Pelosi’s behavior as proof she and other Democrats are so coddled by the press they “can’t handle even the simplest criticism.”
Early on, Blitzer noted that a number of Democrats — including Rep. Ro Khanna of California and former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang — have lately urged Pelosi to accept the White House’s latest $1.8 trillion offer rather than continuing to push for more money.
- But Pelosi said neither Blitzer or her fellow Democrats could possibly understand the intricacies of the ongoing negotiations.
- “They have no idea of the particulars,” she said of Khanna and Yang. “They have no idea of what the language is here.”
- “With all due respect, and you know we’ve known each other a long time, you really don’t know what you’re talking about,” she later told Blitzer.
When Blitzer suggested Pelosi might be blocking a deal “to not allow the president to take credit,” she insisted: “No, I don’t care about that. He’s not that important.”
- According to Pelosi, the differences between the White House proposal and Democrats’ $2.2 trillion relief plan are simply too great.
- “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, as they say here in Washington,” Blitzer advised.
Pelosi then accused Blitzer of showing insufficient respect for her and her colleagues, who she claimed know what’s best for their constituents.
- “I wish you would respect the knowledge that goes into meeting the needs of the American people. But again, you’ve been on a jag defending the administration all this time with no knowledge of the difference between our two bills, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to say that to you in person, virtually,” she said.
- After Blitzer said some Americans’ needs are urgent, Pelosi said: “And we represent them. And we represent them. And we represent them. We know them. We represent them and we know them. We know them. We represent them. Yes.”
As Blizter tried to wrap up the interview, Pelosi sarcastically sniped, “Thank you for your sensitivity to our constituents’ needs.”
- “I am sensitive to them because I see them on the street begging for food, begging for money,” Blitzer replied. “Madam Speaker, thank you so much.”
- “Have you fed them? We feed them. We feed them,” Pelosi said.
Go big or go home?: More than 216,000 U.S. deaths have so far been attributed to the pandemic, and “the true unemployment rate” is said to have skyrocketed to 26.1%.
With Election Day weeks away, Trump last week called off stalled relief negotiations before declaring he wants “a bigger stimulus package, frankly, than either the Democrats or the Republicans are offering.”
