“Think of the children” has been a staple of Democratic talking points since — forever. But former speaker of the House and the highest ranking Democrat in Washington Nancy Pelosi can’t seem to get kids out of her mind even when talking about the deficit.
At her weekly press conference, the aging, befuddled, perhaps senile Pelosi made several verbal gaffes that should worry Democrats who will probably elect her speaker once again if her party takes over the House in November.
The House Minority Leader — and presumptive Speaker of the House if Democrats retake the majority this November — displayed more bizarre behavior for reporters on Thursday as she held her weekly press conference.
Pelosi suffered brain freezes, speech problems and confused Russia and China at least twice.
We’ve all gotten tongue tied, and had verbal slips now and again. But this?
While attacking Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Pelosi had trouble saying “effectively.”
“His kowtowing to the president, esffect, esffectively saying…” she said.
Moments later, while attacking the Trump tax cut, she said, “…the GOP tax scam for the rich that added 2 children dollars more” to the deficit.
Pelosi suffered more speech problems as she was criticizing Trump.
“The president said he was going to move for negotiation, ‘I’m going to nego— negotiate,’ what was it,” she asked a staffer. “Like crazy,” she continued after prompting.
“Families across America are getting a raw deal from the Republicans. Democrats are pres— prosing a better deal,” she said.
After having trouble saying “Tienanmen” Square, she confused America’s adversaries.
“Instead of empowering the Russians, excuse me the Chinese in this case, instead of empowering the Chinese to, um,” she said, suffering a brain freeze, “hurt our industries,” she continued.
Moments later, she confused the countries again.
Talking about the trade deficit, she said, “It’s 80% of our products going into Russia— China, it just is, it’s just wrong.”
The question isn’t whether Pelosi can handle the speakership if Dems retake the House. She can’t. The question is who will be behind the scenes pulling the dummy’s strings. Her mouth may move but the words will be someone else’s.
Despite her obvious infirmities, anyone who challenges her for the speakership will need to overcome her decades of building a loyal host of House Democrats who would support her even if she ran as a corpse. Her PAC doles out millions to candidates while she still wields the power to make committee assignments and grant prime office space to favored members.
But she remains the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans.
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