On Tuesday, appearing on CNN with host Wolf Blitzer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi furiously and hysterically accused Blitzer and some of his colleagues of being “apologists for the Republican position” after Blitzer repeatedly asked her why she would not get together with President Trump to make a deal for a coronavirus stimulus bill.
Blitzer pointed out that Pelosi wrote to House Democrats that “the president only wants his name on a check to go out before election day and for the market to go up,” then asked Pelosi, “Is that what this is all about? To not allow the president to take credit that there’s a deal that will help millions of Americans right now?” Pelosi answered, “I don’t care about that. He’s not that important. But let me say this, with all due respect, you really don’t know what you are talking about.”
Blitzer said of Americans, “They really need the money right now, and even members of your own caucus, Madame Speaker, wanted to accept this deal. 1.8 trillion dollars; Congressman Ro Khanna, a man you know well, I assume you admire him, he’s a Democrat, and he just said this, he said, ‘People in need can’t wait until February. 1.8 trillion is significant & more than twice the Obama stimulus — make a deal & put the ball in the McConnell court.’ So what do you say to Ro Khanna?”
“What I say to you is, I don’t know, you’re always an apologist,” an irate Pelosi snarled. “And many of your colleagues, apologists for the Republican position. Ro Khanna: that’s nice. That isn’t what we’re going to do. And nobody’s waiting until February.”
“I want this very much now,” Pelosi claimed. “Because people need help now. It’s no use giving them a false thing just because the president wants to put a check with his name on it in the mail that we should not be doing all we can to help people pay the rent, put food on the table then enhance benefits that they don’t lose their jobs if they’re state and local. We’re talking about the consequences of a pandemic. The symptoms of a problem that the president refuses to address. And that is the coronavirus. That is the coronavirus.”
“We know the problem out there but there are millions of Americans who have lost their jobs, they can’t pay the rent, their kids need the food,” Blitzer persisted. “1.8 trillion dollars. The president just tweeted: ‘Stimulus: go big or go home.’ He wants even more right now, so why not work on a deal with him and don’t the perfect, as they say here in Washington, be the enemy of the good?”
Pelosi, losing all sense of logic: “Well, I will not let the wrong be the enemy of the right.”
Blitzer: “What’s wrong with 1.8 trillion dollars?”
“Do you know what?” Pelosi asked. “Do you have any idea of what the difference is between the spending that they had in their bill and that we had in our bill? Do you realize that they have come back and said all these things for child tax credits and earned income tax credits and helping people who have lost their jobs, are eliminated in their bill? Do you realize they pay no respect to the fact that child care is very important for people whose children cannot go to school cause they’re remote learning and yet they minimize the need for child care which is the threshold with which people, mothers and fathers, can go to work if they had that. Do you have any idea at how just woefully short their concern —”
Blitzer: “That’s precisely why, Madam Speaker, it’s so important now. Yesterday I spoke to Andrew Yang, who says the same thing: It’s not everything you want, but there’s a lot there.”
Pelosi: “Yeah, but you know what? Honest to God, I can’t get over it. Because Andrew Yang, he’s lovely. Ro Khanna, he’s lovely. They are not negotiating this situation. They have no ideas of the particulars. They have no idea of what the language is here.”
Another slip: “I didn’t come over here to have — so you’re the apologist for the Obama — excuse me, G-d forbid.”
Blitzer, protesting, “Madam Speaker, I’m not an apologist. I’m asking you serious questions because so many people are in desperate need right now. Let me ask you this: when was the last time, Madam Speaker, you spoke with the president about this?”
Pelosi: “I don’t speak with the president. I speak with his representative.”
Blitzer, trying to be reasonable: “Why not? Why not call him and say, Mr. President, let’s work out a deal. It’s not going to be everything you want, it’s not going to be everything I want, but there are so many Americans right now who are in desperate need, let’s make a deal.”
Pelosi, haughtily: “What makes me amused if it weren’t so sad, is how you all think that you know more about the suffering of the American people than those of us who were elected by them to represent them at that table.”
Later, Blitzer pointed out, “Here’s what you wrote in a letter to House Democrats, Madam Speaker… ‘The president only wants his name on a check to go out before election day and for the market to go up.’ Is that what this is all about? To not allow the president to take credit that there’s a deal that will help millions of American’s right now?”
Pelosi: “I don’t care about that. He’s not that important. But let me say this, with all due respect, you really don’t know what you are talking about. …”
Blitzer repeated, “1.8 trillion dollars is a lot of money. The American people need that money ASAP because they’re suffering right now. I’m not saying it’s perfect…”
Pelosi: “You don’t care how it’s spent.”
Blitzer: “Of course, I care how it’s spent. But what I don’t understand is why not talk to the president personally. Call him up and say, ‘Mr. President let’s get a deal tomorrow.’”