Daily US Times, Munich: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had no intention to tear up the President’s State of the Union speech, but made up her mind after she saw it was “terrible,” and wanted to “get attention” to its “objectionable” parts.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Pelosi defended herself amid heavy criticism from Republicans for tearing up her copy of the speech after Trump finished his remarks on Feb. 4. The interview is set to air on Monday.
“I had no intention of doing that when we went to the State of the Union,” Pelosi said, ”After reading through about a third of the speech,I thought this is terrible and realized that almost every page had something in it that was objectionable.”
Pelosi was disappointed by the Trump’s speech when she found no mention of any of the legislation House Democrats had passed.
“We had little press on it, and it seems that if you want to get press, you have to get attention, so I thought, well, let’s get attention on the fact that what he said here today was not true,” Pelosi added.
Nancy Pelosi also noted that she was ‘departing’ from her usual policy of not criticizing the president in the overseas trip, as the interview recorded at the Munich Security Forum.
She said she is not talking about him (Trump) personally, she is just talking about his State of the Union address.
Pelosi’s actions were met heavy criticism by the Republicans. They said her action was offensive to soldiers mentioned during the speech, as well as a breach of decorum towards the president. Trump suggested the action as ‘illegal’, though he did not cite the law. Multiple law experts told laws cited by several of Trump’s allies likely did not apply to her actions.
On February 4, President Donald Trump gave his third State of the Union speech amid his impeachment proceedings. The speech clearly proved divided congress and divided reactions. The President appeared to snub handshake from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the person who opens his impeachment proceedings. Later, Pelosi tore up Trump’s speech.
After the president ended his speech, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up her printed copy of Trump’s speech as lawmakers applauded the end.
In his one hour and 18 minutes long speech, Trump described his administration’s successes. He praised “heroic” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who are tasked with enforcing immigration policy within America’s borders.
“Tragically, there are many cities in America where radical politicians have chosen to provide sanctuary for these criminal illegal aliens”, Trump said ”” In sanctuary cities, local officials order police to release dangerous criminal aliens to prey upon the public, instead of handing them over to ICE to be safely removed.”