This past week, the American right stooped to a new low in outright lies when they circulated altered videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) meant to make her appear drunk or at least struggling with her speech. Presidential lawyer Rudy Giuliani shared a slowed down clip, and President Donald Trump himself shared a selectively edited compilation made to look like the Democratic leader has speech difficulties. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace showcased exactly what Trump allies were doing via airing a clip on her show this past week of herself talking that had been edited in line with the right’s latest fantasy.
Introducing the clip, she shared:
‘The political war of words between President Trump and Speaker Pelosi deteriorated to a level beneath words — comprehensible words at least… We believe that transparency is the best disinfectant for dirty politics, so we’re going to break down what the president of the United States did to the Speaker of the House when he shared a doctored video of her with his millions of Twitter followers.’
Watch:
Some of the altered footage of Pelosi that made the rounds this past week had been slowed down to around 75 percent of its normal speed and its tone had been changed from there to more closely match what the Democratic leader actually sounds like. Wallace’s show this past week did not air the edited Pelosi video during the episode in which they demonstrated how far the right had gone with a slowed down clip of the host, apparently agreeing with a growing consensus against giving the misinformation from the president and his allies any platform at all.
The videos emerged during the same week that Trump burned some of what little bridges remained between his team and Congressional Democrats. On Wednesday, he stormed out of a meeting with Democratic leaders after just a few minutes, asserting that he would not work with them on any bipartisan legislative pushes whatsoever while they continued their efforts at oversight and investigation of his administration. The next day, Trump asserted that the House Speaker was a “mess,” saying she didn’t have the mental fortitude to understand some basic trade policy proposals from his administration.
Pelosi responded simply, sharing:
‘When the “extremely stable genius” starts acting more presidential, I’ll be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues.’
There’s been no sign he actually will start to fall in line with norm anytime soon, however. Just this Friday, besides re-upping the claim that Pelosi is mentally off the rails, he blasted out angry Twitter messages like:
‘I don’t know why the Radical Left Democrats want Bob Mueller to testify when he just issued a 40 Million Dollar Report that states, loud & clear & for all to hear, No Collusion and No Obstruction (how do you Obstruct a NO crime?)’
It’s been said before but — Mueller’s final report covering his Russia probe states neither that there was no collusion between the president’s team and Russia nor that there was no obstruction of justice. It only found no criminally prosecutable conspiracy and specifically did not clear Trump of obstruction allegations. It’s one of many lies from the president, one of which Wallace put on full display this week.
Featured Image via screenshot
