More are talking about what Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did to a copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address than they are about the content of the actual speech. This is true on the president’s Twitter feed as well, and #PelosiMeltdown is trending. George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley, known recently as the GOP’s lone expert witness in the House phase of the impeachment inquiry, ripped Pelosi in a blog post to the point of saying she should resign as Speaker.
Turley has criticized Pelosi’s House for “lowering impeachment standards to fit a paucity of evidence and an abundance of anger,” while acknowledging that the “use of military aid for a quid pro quo to investigate one’s political opponent, if proven, can be an impeachable offense.” On Wednesday, Turley was in as much of a rush to criticize Pelosi as the House was to impeach the president. He said her “disgraceful conduct” tore up “decades of tradition and left any semblance of civility in tatters on the House floor.”
Turley said he was “so offended” because he remembered a time 44 years ago when decorum mattered and lawmakers saw themselves as “custodians of this institution and bore a duty to strengthen and pass along those traditions to the next generation.”
Turley only lightly criticized Trump for snubbing a Pelosi handshake attempt and for “bestowing the Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh in the gallery like a reality show surprise scene.” In Turley’s opinion, Pelosi lowered herself in status to “partisan troll” and, therefore, ought to “resign as speaker.”
Pelosi said afterwards that she ripped the SOTU speech because it was the “courteous thing to do considering the alternative.” She also called it a “manifesto of mistruths.”
Pelosi said something about this on Twitter as well.
https://twitter.com/TeamPelosi/status/1224885860245655553?s=20
Early on Wednesday, Trump congratulated Turley for doing a “great job” last night.
The words “faux outrage” were often used to describe the reaction to Pelosi’s statement.
[Image via CNN screengrab]
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