House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended her controversial behavior at the State of the Union, boasting that she felt “liberated” after aggressively tearing her copy of President Trump’s speech in front of millions of viewers.
During a closed-door meeting with Democrat colleagues on Wednesday, Pelosi defended the act by claiming POTUS’ speech wass a “disgrace” and an attack on the “truth.”
“He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech,” Pelosi told colleagues, calling the address a “disgrace.”
Breitbart.com reports: “She said that he disgraced the House of Representatives by using it as a backdrop for a reality show,” Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) said, according to the outlet.
The speaker, along with fellow caucus members, also took issue with Trump’s decision to honor conservative talk radio legend Rush Limbaugh, who is battling advanced-stage lung cancer, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the address.
“He dishonored the State of the Union as an institutional practice,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) said, according to Politico. “It was kind of outright pandering to his base. It was just a disgraceful display.”
As Breitbart News reported, Pelosi immediately ripped up the State of the Union address following Trump’s conclusion of the speech — an action that drew heavy criticism from the GOP:
She later defended her decision as the “courteous thing to do considering the alternative,” although she did not specify what alternative she had in mind.