‘I don’t care’: Pelosi gives statue topplers a pass

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday refused to condemn protesters who toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus in her native Baltimore, blowing it off by saying, “People will do what they do.”

“I think that its up to the communities to decide what statues they want to see,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said when pressed on the July 4 attack on the statue of the explorer, during which a mob of activists pulled it down, dragged it to the Inner Harbor and pushed it into the water.

Explaining her position, Pelosi, 80, said she wasn’t a sentimental person, and even compared monuments to her grandmother’s earrings, which she hadn’t kept.

“I’m not one of those people who’s wedded to, ‘Oh, a statue to somebody someplace is an important thing,’ ” she said at a press briefing on Capitol Hill.

“If the community doesn’t want the statue there, the statue shouldn’t be there,” she said, skipping over the rule of law. “I don’t care that much about the statues.”

When a reporter pushed back on Pelosi, suggesting it would be better for local politicians to remove a statue than a “mob in the middle of the night,” the congresswoman said, “People will do what they do.”

Her nonchalance toward the toppling of statues around the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of cops in Minneapolis stands in stark contrast to the position of President Trump, who wants prison terms for offenders.

Baltimore Mayor Bernard Young said he would not tolerate the destruction of the statue of the 15thcentury Italian explorer who colonized the Americas.

“This is not a peaceful protest,” Young said. “It is unacceptable.”