Pelosi tries to tone down Trump feud in Twin Cities visit
MINNEAPOLIS – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wasn’t interested in perpetuating her war of words with President Donald Trump during her visit to the Twin Cities on Friday.
“I’m done with that. I’m done with that,” Pelosi, Dcalif., said in a brief interview with the Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio.
“We have a responsibility to protect and defend the Constitution and to do whatever investigations are necessary to honor our congressional responsibility to do so. I’m not getting in a give and take with the president,” Pelosi said.
She had no such qualms earlier this week as the two leaders exchanged personal insults. Trump called her “Crazy Nancy” and “a mess” after Pelosi suggested that the president’s family should stage an intervention to deal with his erratic behavior.
Trump said Friday as he left for Japan that he “can work with the speaker” despite the feud that erupted after he walked out of a Wednesday meeting about an infrastructure plan.
Asked in the interview whether civility can be returned to Washington, Pelosi said, “We think that it can if everybody honors the oath that we take to the Constitution . ... What you’re seeing there now is very unusual. Very unusual.”
She added: “It will change when we have a new president of the United States. I don’t know if he can be changed.”
She spoke after a roundtable discussion on community health organized by 4th District U.S. Rep. Betty Mccollum at the Paul and Sheila Wellstone House, a neighborhood service center in St. Paul.
Later Friday, Pelosi was to give the keynote address at the DFL’S Humphrey Mondale dinner, its annual fundraiser.
Trump has said that he can carry Minnesota, which he lost narrowly in 2016, in next year’s election. “I believe in the people of Minnesota,” Pelosi said.
“Tonight, Nancy Pelosi descends on Minnesota to spread the Democrats’ message of ... blocking, obstructing and, apparently, working towards impeaching President Donald Trump,” Minnesota Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan said in a statement Friday.
“While Minnesota Democrats welcome Pelosi tonight to celebrate dysfunction, obstruction and little progress in Washington, Republicans are prepping to share the numerous accomplishments under President Trump with Minnesota families so we can celebrate on Election Night 2020,” she said.