On Sunday, during an appearance on ABC’s This Week with host George Stephanopoulos, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) condemned President Donald Trump’s recent antagonistic rhetoric targeting Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. At a weekend rally in Michigan, Trump expressed approval when his fans started belting out a chant of “Lock her up!” targeting Whitmer, who has faced frequently deranged criticism for her efforts to bring the Coronavirus under control in her state. Recently, the FBI stopped a plot to kidnap Whitmer, but this recent active threat of violence against the governor has not put a major dent in Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric against her.
After Trump expressed support for the “Lock her up!” chant targeting Whitmer, the governor herself condemned the president’s belligerence. Whitmer called the chant “exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government officials’ lives in danger while we try to save the lives of our fellow Americans,” adding that “it has to stop.” On Sunday morning, Pelosi added:
‘The president has to realize that the words of the president of the United States weigh a ton, and in our political dialogue — to inject fear tactics into it, especially [against] a woman governor and her family is so irresponsible. In all fairness to people who listen to him, people think the president is important and what he says should be adhered to. So we have this horrible situation, but the people have awakened to him. 26 million people already voting — the biggest antidote to his poison is the vote.’
Watch her comments below:
JUST IN: Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells @GStephanopoulos Trump’s rhetoric at Michigan rally was “irresponsible.”
“The president has to realize that words of the president of the United States weigh a ton … the biggest antidote to his poison is the vote.” https://t.co/qdyRUdx4xE pic.twitter.com/KDp2DiwMVp
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 18, 2020
Odds are that most of those who have already voted have voted against Trump, because Democrats lead Republicans big time in the race to return mail-in ballots. Democrats have cast 55 percent of the over 10.7 million early mail-in ballots for which party affiliation data was available as of Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden routinely leads Trump in national-level polls by double-digits, with just weeks to go until Election Day and a Trump re-election campaign that has failed to present a comprehensive case for the president’s re-election to the American people. When asked the simple question of what specifically he would want to do with a second term, Trump has repeatedly struggled.
While on ABC this weekend, Pelosi also addressed the seemingly pending confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Trump pick is slated to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away recently. Pelosi insisted that winning upcoming elections would be a key way “to offset whatever this court may do.”
Check out Pelosi’s comments below:
“We’ll see. I’m not in the Senate,” Speaker Pelosi tells @GStephanopoulos when asked if the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett is a done deal.
"What I am talking about is how we win this election because we have to offset whatever … this Court may do.” https://t.co/AaPeiGcr3W pic.twitter.com/PTsYa0gHuV
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 18, 2020
Shortly after Barrett’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s set to hear a case over the future of the Affordable Care Act, which she has expressed opposition to in the past but which provides health coverage for tens of millions of Americans. The court may also hear a case or cases over the 2020 election results, depending on the final outcome and whether Trump decides to refuse to accept the election results and take the issue to court.
