House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accused religious Americans who cast votes for President Donald Trump of selling out the United States over the issue of abortion.
Pelosi appeared on a special episode of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s podcast, “You and Me Both,” on Monday to discuss the Capitol riot and the incoming Biden administration. During the roughly 30-minute conversation, Clinton and Pelosi reflected on what brought Trump to the White House, casting blame on religious Americans and their opposition to abortion.
“Now, there’s one other element that I have been talking about for a long time that gives me great grief as a Catholic. I think that Donald Trump is president because of the issue of a woman’s right to choose,” Pelosi said. “When he signed that paper saying, “These are the judges that I will appoint,” that was the dog whistle to the Evangelicals, to the Catholics, and all the rest. A woman will not have the right to choose. And when you see the polls about impeachment now, 80 percent think what happened was wrong; 70-some percent said he’s responsible, but 40-some percent don’t think he should be impeached. Well, why? One issue: abortion.”
“And that is enough,” Pelosi added. “When you take the greed of those who want their tax cut, that’s probably a small number, but nonetheless a number, and then you take the abortion issue – and many of these people are very good people; that’s just their point of view. But they were willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”
Clinton followed up and accused pro-life politicians of using a misunderstanding of Catholicism to “obtain and use power” by capitalizing on many Americans’ condemnation of abortion. The two women agreed that if someone is really against abortion, they should welcome contraception.
“And, you know, one of the terrible ironies of their position is that starting in the 90s under Democratic presidents, the abortion rate went way down. And with proper contraception and education and a stigma-free conversation, the numbers can continue to go way down,” Clinton said. “So, what’s really incredibly sad is how those who, in my opinion and experience, do not view this issue as a priority, have used the legitimate questions, concerns and, yes, understanding of faith, to obtain and use power.”
Later on in the podcast, Clinton and Pelosi floated a conspiracy theory that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The two supported putting together a “9/11-type commission” to investigate the incident and find out whether Trump planned with Putin to undermine the United States.
“I hope historically we will find out who [Trump is] beholden to, who pulls his strings,” Clinton said. “I would love to see his phone records to see whether he was talking to Putin the day that the insurgents invaded our Capitol. But we now know that not just him, but his enablers, his accomplices, his cult members, have the same disregard for democracy.”
Pelosi added: “I don’t know what Putin has on him politically, financially, or personally, but what happened last week was a gift to Putin, because Putin wants to undermine democracy in our country and throughout the world.”
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