What We Know:
- Pelosi felt very “liberated” taking a stand, while Republicans said she dishonored the house. Pelosi said the reason behind her act was simple, she felt his speech “was a pack of lies”. She also added, “if that is what he is going to do, if that is what he is going to say as he’s taking away disability benefits from people on Social Security, or he is dismantling Medicaid, or he is in court trying to undo the pre-existing condition. The list goes on and on… I tried to find one page I could spare that didn’t have a lie on it.”
- This has become an overnight sensation and has been shared virally on television and the internet. Even some of Pelosi’s critics admitted the memes created after this incident was genius. Fox’s Steve Doocy said,
“She gave us something to talk about. She knew exactly what she was doing.”
- It turned the annual address into a clash between a president who said he is changing America for the better and a woman who is fed up with his lies. Several people wondered if Pelosi was purposely trying to replace one meme-worthy moment with another.
- Several newspapers, such as The New York Times, replaced a photo of a stone-faced Pelosi to the livelier photo of Pelosi tearing President Trump’s speech with the subheadline “Tensions Grow as He and Pelosi Swap Snubs.”
- After cable commentators bashed Pelosi for the tear, Pelosi’s office had issued a statement to justify her actions. Pelosi said, “The manifesto of mistruths presented in page after page of the address tonight should be a call to action for everyone who expects truth from the President and policies worthy of his office and the American people.”
- Sean Hannity ignored everything that Pelosi had mentioned in her statement and targeted Pelosi by saying what she did was “one of the most classless things ever done in the history of the State of the Union”. While Fox commentator Jason Chaffetz said, “I have never seen anybody act so childish in my life.”
- The man of the hour took to his online diary early in the morning to retweet anti-Pelosi tweets and many of them featured the hashtag #PelosiTantrum. Vice President Pence addressed the controversial moment on Fox and Friends saying “I wasn’t sure if she was ripping up the speech or the Constitution”.
Whether you agree or not, one thing is for certain, this incident caused people to talk. Hopefully, this conversation can lead to a better solution for the American people.
