For 82 minutes during President Trump’s State of the Union address, 4 February, 2020, Speaker Pelosi shuffled the papers, chewed on her lip, mumbled at lot at Vice President Pence, scowled and mostly kept her seat as the chamber erupted in applause over 100 times.
Let’s make sure we accurately define the venue. This was not a republican campaign speech or political debate. President Trump was there because Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution requires the President to periodically “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
Of the last 12 Presidents (Eisenhower through Trump) the Speaker of the House was of the opposite political party during 9 of those administrations. But, they all seemed to find it in their heart to honor the office of the president with a traditional and proper introduction, “Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States.” Speaker Pelosi sent an instant, clear message that civility was out the door with her introduction, “Members of Congress, the President of the United States.”
Keep in mind the requirement is to, “…. give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union….” With that in mind the content of the address should, therefore, be factual. To meet that requirement, the president proceeded to report to us that over the past 36 months:
There are seven million new jobs; lowest average unemployment rate in history; African-American poverty declined to lowest rate ever recorded; women’s unemployment rate lowest in 70 years; last year women filled 72% of all new jobs; veteran unemployment is at a record low; disabled American unemployment at an all-time low; non-high school graduates have lowest unemployment in recorded history; a record number of young Americans are now employed; 7 million Americans have dropped out of food stamps; 10 million have been lifted off of welfare; three and a half million working-age people have joined the workforce; net worth of the lower-half wage earners has increased 47%; lowest income workers have seen a 16% pay increase; median household income is now at the highest level ever recorded; stock markets have soared 70%; $12 trillion added to our nation’s wealth. 401K and pensions increases of 60-100%; wealthy companies are pouring money into needy communities; passed a justice reform law; relentless regulatory reduction campaign; now number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world; now energy independent; under Bush and Obama, 60,000 factories moved overseas, 12,000 have returned to the US; thousands of new plants are planned; new trade deal with Mexico and Canada increasing US productivity (100,000 in auto industry alone); groundbreaking trade deal with China; rebuilt US military; US leading 59-nation diplomatic coalition against Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela; defeated the ISIS califate; NATO members financial input up $400 billion; created Space Force; illegal immigrant crossings are down for the eighth straight month; new border wall is under construction. Last year ICE arrested more than 120,000 criminal aliens charged with nearly 10,000 burglaries, 5,000 sexual assaults, 45,000 violent assaults, and 2,000 murders.
And so it went for 82 minutes, factual data describing today’s state of the union.
Back to the title question, What is Wrong with Speaker Pelosi? Since 2007, Pelosi has been either the minority leader in the House or, when in the majority, the Speaker of the House.
From 2007 through 2016, all of the economic, foreign policy, trade and national security issues enumerated in the long “facts” paragraph above were real problems. The economy was awful, illegal immigration was out of control, foreign policy was a mess and trade deals were very disadvantageous to the US. This is not to say that those bad old days were Pelosi’s fault but for sure she was not instrumental in adopting solutions to any of them.
Enter President Trump 36 months ago. He forced through the changes necessary to rapidly turn all the problems into success stories. Pelosi’s role during that period has been to lead the “resistance” and by her own recent admission spent 2 ½ years working to impeach the president.
Special prosecutor Mueller was to take care of getting rid of Trump. Another failure. The Ukrainian fiasco was to deal the Trump presidency a lethal blow. Trump’s overall approval rating is up ten percent since the Pelosi impeachment fiasco began last fall and is higher than President Obama after his first three years in office.
Given all that, how depressing, frustrating, agonizing must it have been for Pelosi to sit there, behind President Trump, listening to the actual state of the union with millions of Americans watching live as she sat on her hands and chewed her lower lip?
Nothing is right in Pelosi’s world right now.
Additionally, during the president’s address she demonstrated to all America how callous and uncaring she can be. The president’s guest list:
Tony Rankins a down-and-out drug addict who lost all his worldly goods and his family and is now sober with a good job and reunited with his family.
The touching story of 100-year old Tuskegee Airman, Charles McGee, whose great grandson has a vision to be in the new Space Force.
Fourth grader Janiyah Davis and her single mom, Stephanie, striving to get into a better school. The president promised her an opportunity scholarship to attend a school of her choice.
Renowned radio host Rush Limbaugh, recently diagnosed with phase-four lung cancer, was awarded, on the spot, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The amazing 2-year old Ellie who was born at 21 weeks and survived was in attendance with her mother Robin.
An illegal immigrant in a sanctuary city in a sanctuary state murdered Rocky Jones, an innocent bystander. His grieving brother Jody was there as a guest of the president.
The president honored military spouse Amy Williams and her two young children who were suddenly joined by their husband/father Sergeant First Class Townsend Williams, home from his fourth deployment. It was the longest and loudest applause of the evening.
Every story was heart-wrenching, yet Pelosi sat on her hands unsmiling, not looking at those being honored. It was both disgusting and discouraging to watch.
When President trump finished his address, Speaker Pelosi promptly stood up, ripped her copy of the speech in half and departed the House Chamber. On her way out a reporter asked her why she had ripped up the speech. She replied, “It was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives.” Courteous? Alternatives?
Pelosi is in a failed state of mind. While she has spent years in the nation’s senior leadership position (second in line to the presidency) her leadership skills are almost nonexistent. She is not a leader; she is a person obsessed with power in a leadership position. A frightening thought considering her position today. It is her way or the highway.
There is a serious culture of blame and hate in this country. Every day in the mainstream media we can see, hear and read the hatemongers throwing gas on the hate fire.
By most accounts Pelosi is vindictive, power hungry, obsessed with hate and is leading many democrats in exactly the wrong direction.
Pelosi is a leader only to the extent that her example influences her followers. Unfortunately, her unforgivable behavior at the State of the Union has further influenced millions of progressive democrat Trump-haters. She and they are blinded by hate to the positive things going on across our great country.
She has moments of intelligent good thoughts like last Spring when she said, “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country…….”. Unfortunately, a few months later all those thoughts vanished; hatred and obsession took over and doing what is in the best interest of the American people became a distant after-thought.
Generally speaking, America is fed up with divisiveness. However, going forward we will automatically consider that actions speak louder than words. If an when she advocates for a bi-partisan approach to some issue, her demonstrative ripping up of the speech at the State of the Union on live TV for all to see will rule the day. Whatever effectiveness she had following the impeachment debacle, will now certainly be diminished.
After taking an objective look at the actual State of the Union today, if you are a disciple of Speaker Pelosi, I have two questions for you. One, can you recite a specific list of positive accomplishments for the nation that Pelosi has advocated for over the past 36 months? Secondly, to you personally, can you find it in your heart to love your country more than you hate President Trump?
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired