SPEAKER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NANCY PELOSI D CA,
thank you for having the courage to not be intimidated by that loud mouthed. lying, fascist pig (NOT MY) pres drumpf / trump. His words and actions in the House chamber were those of a Third World autocratic despot (the kind of "ruler" he desires to be) and by ripping you gave them the respect they deserved.
Nancy Pelosi Rips Up Trump’s State Of The Union Speech
Several Democratic lawmakers walked out of the president’s address, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Tim Ryan and Bill Pascrell.
Donald Trump appeared to snub Nancy Pelosi's request for a handshake during the start of his State of the Union address. At the speech's conclusion, Pelosi was seen tearing up her copy of the speech, later saying 'it was the courteous thing to do'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up her printed copy of President Donald Trump’s speech at the conclusion of his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
The dramatic moment showed her tear and then toss the pages behind Trump’s back as he embraced a standing ovation at the conclusion of his address.
“It was the courteous thing to do, considering the alternatives,” Pelosi told a reporter who questioned her destruction.
Trump and Pelosi had a rough start to the night, with the president appearing to snub Pelosi’s outstretched hand as he approached the lectern. When she minutes later introduced him, she left out any praise of him.
Ordinarily, the speaker would declare: “I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States.”
Pelosi instead clipped it down to: “Members of Congress, the president of the United States.”
Several Democratic lawmakers walked out of Trump’s speech, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Tim Ryan of Ohio and Bill Pascrell of New Jersey.
“The lies, the bigotry, and the shameless bragging about taking away food stamps that people depend on to live — it was all beneath the dignity of the office he occupies,” Tlaib later tweeted. “Shame on this forever impeached president.”
Here Are The Biggest Whoppers From Trump’s 2020 State Of The Union
The president inflated details and straight-up misled Americans about his policies during his address to Congress.
The president also gave himself credit for an initial deal with China that he says will ultimately lead to a better economic relationship between the U.S. and the world’s second-biggest economy ― even though it’s unclear whether the key element of the bargain that’s supposed to benefit American workers will actually be implemented and its effects have yet to be seen.
And he boasted that people had been “lifted off” welfare ― which is due to improvements in the economy and stricter eligibility rules initiated by President Barack Obama. Trump’s welfare proposals have yet to take effect.
‘Bold Regulatory Reduction Campaign’
Trump bragged Tuesday of having “shattered the mentality of American decline” and took credit for the United States becoming “the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, by far.” In fact, it was in 2012, under Obama, that the U.S. became the top producer, as CNN’s Daniel Dale noted in a tweet ahead of Trump’s speech.
The actual effect of what Trump called his “bold regulatory reduction campaign” has been protecting planet-heating emissions from cars and power plants and ending the U.S. commitment to the climate goals of the landmark international Paris agreement that almost every other nation is still committed to. The president has shortened the review process under the National Environmental Policy Act, clearing the way for new infrastructure projects, particularly those dealing with fossil fuels, to ignore climate change as an issue altogether. And he’s stripped federal protections from nearly half the nation’s wetlands and hundreds of thousands of streams, proposed making it legal to incidentally kill migratory birds, and cleared the way to approve old, bee-killing pesticides and new, potentially human-killing “forever chemicals.”
The ‘Peace Plan’
Trump previewed his 2020 sales pitch about his foreign policy: that he’s making Americans safer by taking aggressive steps that his predecessors avoided ― treating foreigners, whom he presents as exploitative or threatening or both, with greater wariness and in some cases outright violence.
First, he misrepresented the way U.S. allies are addressing Washington’s frustrations with their failure to meet expectations on defense spending for members of the NATO alliance, a top issue for him but also a priority for predecessors like Obama. Other countries have raised more than $400 billion already, he claimed ― a lie Dale called out by noting that, per NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, those countries will be paying that amount by 2024.
Then the president gave himself a pat on the back for killing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the so-called Islamic State, ignoring the role Obama’s administration played in crafting the anti-ISIS strategy he followed, and for last month ordering the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a dramatic escalation in the confrontation between Washington and Tehran and a move that past presidents considered but decided would be too risky. The move prompted retaliatory strikes by Iran that injured 50 American troops and worsened U.S. relations with Iraq, where the U.S. targeted Soleimani.
And he promoted another move that inflamed regional tensions: his “peace plan” for Israelis and Palestinians ― a framework that infuriated the Palestinians and their supporters and emboldened Israeli hard-liners eager to advance policies like settlements and annexation that violate international law and human rights standards.
Trump’s continued failure to explore serious diplomacy made it harder for him to make good on a 2016-era promise that he’s continued to talk about: bringing back American forces and winding down the country’s foreign wars.
“We are working to end America’s wars in the Middle East,” Trump claimed Tuesday night. Since May, the president has sent more than 20,000 additional American troops to the Middle East, including deploying some to Saudi Arabia for the first time since 2003. He’s simultaneously complicated the alliances that Washington could lean on for support instead of investing its own resources, most notably with his high-profile abandonment of a crucial U.S. partner in the counter-ISIS fight, the Syrian Kurds, last year.
Jonathan Cohn, Chris D’Angelo and Alexander C. Kaufman contributed reporting.
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