Pelosi Responds When Reporter Asks: ‘Do You Hate the President?’

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi holds her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 5, 2019. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after she announced the House would move forward in drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, sparred with a Sinclair reporter following a press conference.

James Rosen, the journalist, asked her: “Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?”

In a rare move, Pelosi stopped and returned to the stand and condemned the question.

“Don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that,” Pelosi said, adding, “I resent you using ‘hate’ in a sentence that references me.”

Rosen pressed on and said his question echoed claims by Trump and Republicans that the Democrats are moving to impeach Trump “because they don’t like the guy.”

“It has nothing to do with that,” a visibly upset Pelosi said. “I think the president is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence. I think he is cruel when he doesn’t deal with helping our Dreamers, of which we are proud.”

She said impeachment “is about the Constitution of the United States.”

“I don’t hate anyone,” Pelosi added. “We don’t hate anyone.”

President Trump offered a response, saying that “Pelosi just had a nervous fit. She hates that we will soon have 182 great new judges and sooo much more. Stock Market and employment records.”

“She says she ‘prays for the President,’ Trump wrote. ”I don’t believe her, not even close. Help the homeless in your district Nancy. USMCA?” He was referring to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade to replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

During a Wednesday impeachment hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, Republican-selected witness Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said impeaching Trump sets a “dangerous precedent.” He noted that emotions are high in Washington, but suggested that everyone needs to calm down on impeachment.

“I get it. You are mad. The president is mad. My Democratic friends are mad. My Republican friends are mad. My wife is mad. My kids are mad. Even my dog seems mad. And Luna is a Goldendoodle and they don’t get mad,” Turley told the panel of lawmakers. “We’re all mad. Where has that taken us? Will a slipshod impeachment make us less mad? Will it only give an invitation for the madness to follow in every future administration?” he added.

The three other law experts, chosen by House Democrats, testified at the hearing that they believed Trump committed impeachable offenses.