A6
NATION
East Oregonian
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Impeachment done, Pelosi unburdens herself about Trump
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Donald Trump was
gone, the House lights were
dimming, and House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi looked up to
her friends and family in the
gallery overhead. She held up
the speech she had shredded
behind Trump’s back, on live
television. She put her hand
to her heart, dipped her head
and gave a little bow.
The moment showcased
Pelosi’s sharper, less-re-
strained approach to the
nation’s 45th president at the
bitter end of the impeach-
ment saga she led. Now,
she’s leading House Demo-
crats out of impeachment’s
shadow, through regular leg-
islative business and toward
Election Day in November.
And though there’s no sign
Pelosi herself is exiting the
political stage, there’s abun-
dant evidence that she’s
unburdening herself of any
lingering restraint when it
comes to Trump.
And that’s saying some-
thing,
considering
her
unapologetic style when it
comes to him. She smirked
and clapped, eye-to-eye with
him at last year’s State of the
Union. In private, she ques-
tioned the president’s man-
hood. And she stalked out of
a White House meeting with
him in October 2019, bluntly
suggesting the president is
controlled by his counterpart
in Russia.
But her speech-shredding
on Tuesday night appeared
to mark a pointier, post-im-
peachment
phase,
one
Trump’s re-election cam-
paign quickly sought to
monetize.
“Wow. Nancy ripped
my speech. She truly
hates America,” said a text
Wednesday as part of an
effort to raise $2 million in
24 hours.
As furious Republicans
piled on the condemnation,
Pelosi brandished the ripped
paper in full view of report-
ers and repeated in the hall-
ways that she “tore it up.”
“I felt very liberated last
night,” Pelosi told House
Democrats in their private
caucus meeting Wednesday,
according to a Democratic
aide in the room, who spoke
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of Calif., tears her copy of Pres-
ident Donald Trump’s State of the Union address after he
delivered it to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in
Washington on Tuesday. Vice President Mike Pence is at left.
on condition of anonymity to
discuss the remarks. She said
she viewed Trump’s remarks
as “a pack of lies” on every-
thing from health care to
Medicare and Medicaid.
“We saw the president of
the United States shred the
truth right in front of us,” she
said. “My friends, we just
have to declare it.”
That’s what Pelosi said she
was doing during Trump’s
address to the nation, in
which he extolled a “great
American comeback” and
drew on falsehoods about
U.S. energy supremacy,
health care and the econ-
omy. Trump was speaking
from a place of strength, with
the Republican Party mostly
solidly behind him, on the
brink of his Senate acquittal
Wednesday.
For Pelosi and the Demo-
crats, the address was a much
more glum event. The party
had a political hangover from
the debacle Monday night
in Iowa, whose kickoff cau-
cuses ended in delays, fury
and mockery from Republi-
cans. The House’s impeach-
ment of Trump, with its huge
political risks for majority
Democrats, was about to be
dispatched by the Republi-
can-led Senate. They booed
and groaned, but more often,
just sat as Trump spoke.
Trump’s speech Tues-
day night on Pelosi’s turf
was the fi rst time the two
had been in the same room
since Pelosi stalked out of
the White House meeting in
October. It was bookended
by competing snubs: Trump
appeared to ignore Pelosi’s
outstretched hand when he
arrived on the podium. She
gave a look to her caucus,
with a wide grin.
Trump again kept his back
mostly turned to her when he
fi nished. Inches behind him,
Pelosi gathered the speech’s
pages and ripped them —
once, twice, three times and a
fourth — as he left the cham-
ber. That’s when she held
up the navy folio with gold
letters that contained what
remained of the address.
In fact, Pelosi has been
freer with her thoughts on
Trump and the Republicans
for a while. She was notably
less restrained during a Jan.
15 fl oor speech on the day the
House sent the two articles of
impeachment to the Senate
for trial.
She began by addressing
Rep. Doug Collins, a Geor-
gia Republican who had said
Democrats are “in love with
terrorists” and then apolo-
gized for his remark.
“I want to thank the dis-
tinguished gentleman from
Georgia for his apology
for his ridiculous remarks
about me and House Demo-
crats,” Pelosi said, looking at
Collins.
Then she took aim at
Trump’s July 25, 2019, phone
call that forms the corner-
stone of his impeachment
case. During the conversa-
tion, Trump asked the pres-
ident of Ukraine to do the
“favor” of investigating for-
mer Vice President Joe Biden
and his son. Pelosi likened
Trump’s style to that of the
mobsters in “The Irishman”
movie.
Partial Iowa results give Buttigieg slight edge over Sanders
By STEVE PEOPLES,
THOMAS BEAUMONT
AND ALEXANDRA
JAFFE
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa —
Pete Buttigieg held a slight
lead over Bernie Sanders
in the opening contest of
the Democratic race for the
presidential
nomination,
according to partial results
released by the Iowa Demo-
cratic Party.
The results that came out
Tuesday and Wednesday fol-
lowed a period of caucus
chaos. Technical problems
marred the complicated
process, forcing state offi -
cials to apologize and rais-
ing questions about Iowa’s
traditional place atop the
presiden-
tial primary
calendar.
It
was
too early to
call a win-
ner based
Buttigieg
on the ini-
tial results
from Monday’s caucuses,
but Massachusetts Sen.
Elizabeth Warren, former
Vice President Joe Biden
and Minnesota Sen. Amy
Klobuchar were trailing in
the tally of State Delegate
Equivalents, according to
the data.
The results refl ected 75%
of precincts in the state.
The two early leaders —
Buttigieg, the former mayor
of South Bend, Indiana, and
Vermont senator Sanders —
Sanders
Warren
Biden
were separated by 40 years
in age, confl icting ideology
and more.
Sanders, a 78-year-old
self-described democratic
socialist, has been a pro-
gressive powerhouse for
decades. For the 38-year-old
Buttigieg, his early standing
cemented his transforma-
tion from a little-known city
leader to a legitimate force
in the 2020 contest. Butti-
gieg is also the fi rst openly
gay candidate to earn presi-
Klobuchar
dential primary delegates.
“We don’t know all of
the numbers, but we know
this much: A campaign that
started a year ago with four
staff members, no name
recognition, no money, just
a big idea — a campaign
that some said should have
no business even making
this attempt — has taken
its place at the front of this
race,” Buttigieg, said as he
campaigned in next-up New
Hampshire with his husband
looking on.
Buttigieg’s early rise was
rivaled for possible impor-
tance by the struggle of
another moderate, Biden.
One of his party’s most
accomplished fi gures, the
former two-term vice pres-
ident and longtime sena-
tor was mired in the sec-
ond tier of Iowa candidates
with almost two-thirds of
precincts reporting. Biden’s
campaign sought to play
down the caucus results even
before they were released,
hardly a measure of strength
for a high-profi le contender
who has led national polls
for most of the last year.
“We believe we will
emerge with the delegates we
need to continue on our path
to nomination,” said Symone
Sanders, a senior adviser.
While all campaigns were
eager to spin the Iowa results
to their advantage, there was
little immediate indication
that the incomplete results
erased the confusion and
concern that loomed over
the caucuses. It was unclear
when the full results would
be released.
During a private confer-
ence call with campaigns
earlier in the day, the chair-
man of the state party, Troy
Price, declined to answer
questions about the timeline
— even whether it would be
days or weeks.
“We have been working
day and night to make sure
these results are accurate,”
Price said at a subsequent
news conference.
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