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Impeachment over, Pelosi unburdens herself of restraint regarding Trump

She says she views Trump’s State of the Union remarks as ‘a pack of lies’

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press
Published: February 5, 2020, 8:16pm
2 Photos
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., bows to the guests seated in her gallery seats after President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., bows to the guests seated in her gallery seats after President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (alex brandon/Associated Press) Photo Gallery

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was gone, the House lights were dimming, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi looked up to her friends and family in the gallery overhead. She held up the speech she had shredded behind Trump’s back, on live television. She put her hand to her heart, dipped her head and gave a little bow.

The moment showcased Pelosi’s sharper, less-restrained approach to the nation’s 45th president at the bitter end of the impeachment saga she led. Now, she’s leading House Democrats out of impeachment’s shadow, through regular legislative business and toward Election Day in November. And though there’s no sign Pelosi herself is exiting the political stage, there’s abundant evidence that she’s unburdening herself of any lingering restraint when it comes to Trump.

And that’s saying something, considering her unapologetic style when it comes to him. She smirked and clapped, eye-to-eye with him at last year’s State of the Union. In private, she questioned the president’s manhood. And she stalked out of a White House meeting with him in October, bluntly suggesting the president is controlled by his counterpart in Russia.

But her speech-shredding on Tuesday night appeared to mark a pointier, post-impeachment phase, one Trump’s re-election campaign quickly sought to monetize.

“Wow. Nancy ripped my speech. She truly hates America,” said a text Wednesday as part of an effort to raise $2 million in 24 hours.

As furious Republicans piled on the condemnation, Pelosi brandished the ripped paper in full view of reporters and repeated in the hallways that she “tore it up.”

“I felt very liberated last night,” Pelosi told House Democrats in their private caucus meeting Wednesday, according to a Democratic aide in the room, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the remarks. She said she viewed Trump’s remarks as “a pack of lies” on everything from health care to Medicare and Medicaid.

“We saw the president of the United States shred the truth right in front of us,” she said. “My friends, we just have to declare it.”

That’s what Pelosi said she was doing during Trump’s address to the nation, in which he extolled a “great American comeback” and drew on falsehoods about U.S. energy supremacy, health care and the economy. Trump was speaking from a place of strength, with the Republican Party mostly solidly behind him, on the brink of his Senate acquittal Wednesday.

For Pelosi and the Democrats, the address was a much more glum event. The party had a political hangover from the debacle Monday night in Iowa, whose kickoff caucuses ended in delays, fury and mockery from Republicans. The House’s impeachment of Trump, with its huge political risks for majority Democrats, was about to be dispatched by the Republican-led Senate. They booed and groaned, but more often, just sat still as Trump spoke.

Trump’s speech Tuesday night on Pelosi’s turf was the first time the two had been in the same room since Pelosi stalked out of the White House meeting in October. It was book ended by competing snubs: Trump appeared to ignore Pelosi’s outstretched hand when he arrived on the podium. She gave a look to her caucus, with a wide grin.

Trump again kept his back mostly turned to her when he finished. Inches behind him, Pelosi gathered the speech’s pages and ripped them — once, twice, three times and a fourth — as he left the chamber. That’s when she held up the navy blue folio with gold letters that contained what remained of the address.

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