Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) described President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as “lazy” in a post-speech appearance on CNN, and pushed back against the president singling her out on the topic of Congressional stock trading.
In the interview, Pelosi said the president took the opportunity to grandstand about patriotism without meaningfully speaking to why Americans should feel that way.
“It’s one thing to acknowledge patriotism and people getting well and everything when you have absolutely nothing to do with their courage or the rest, but you spend an hour and a half doing it,” Pelosi told CNN anchors Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, Kaitlan Collins and Kasie Hunt. “What is the state of the nation?”
Pelosi also complimented the Democratic response delivered by Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who she said did a “remarkable job insisting on the truth.” She contrasted Spanberger’s speech with the contents of Trump’s, condemning his mentions of his “big, beautiful bill” and his scant references to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which marked its fourth anniversary on Tuesday.
The former House Speaker’s response followed Trump also referencing her as he called for a ban on congressional stock trading, a proposal that received bipartisan applause. The Pelosi family’s extensive stock portfolio has grown during her decades in Congress, which has spurred allegations of insider trading. Pelosi has denied the allegations and endorsed a ban on congressional stock trading in 2022.
“Did Nancy Pelosi stand up?” Trump quipped during his speech. “Doubt it.”
Pelosi, who did stand up for the remark, said Trump mentioning her was a deflection from his own financial dealings.
“Look at your own self,” she said. “The inference he wants to draw is there was something wrong with that, which there wasn‘t, and if there was, people get prosecuted for it. For a long time now, we‘ve been trying to pass this law, now it has more support than it had before.”
Pelosi said she ultimately wasn’t bothered by the call-out. She expressed deeper concern about state of the U.S. democracy, “which he is destroying, even in the 250th year anniversary.” Pelosi said she expects the American people will come around to seeing how Trump’s actions in office risked doing them more harm than good.
“We believe in the goodness of the American people, that when they are presented with the truth, what the opportunities are what the difference is that they will come around to that and hopefully we can do that in a bipartisan way,” she said.
