Did anyone think for even one second that Donald Trump would not respond in kind to Nancy Pelosi’s now-daily personal attacks on him?
Isn’t that what Donald Trump does? Always has done? So why should this time be any different?
From Natalie Andrews’ article for the Wall Street Journal:
President Trump questioned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s mental acuity the day after she suggested his family stage an “intervention,” the culmination of a weeklong battle of words between the nation’s top Republican and Democrat.
The feud between the two leaders has become personal and leaves in question whether they will be able to work together on major legislation before the presidential election gets under way in 2020.
“You think Nancy is the same as she was? She’s not. Maybe we can all say that,” Mr. Trump told reporters Friday as he departed on a trip to Japan. Mrs. Pelosi is 79 and has led the House Democratic caucus since 2003. Mr. Trump is 72.
Mr. Trump also tweeted a video on Thursday evening of a Fox Business segment that included tightly edited clips of moments where she stammered during her press conference earlier in the day, with the segment’s hosts questioning whether she may be exhausted due to her age.
Just hours before Mr. Trump had tweeted the video, he called Mrs. Pelosi “crazy” at a news conference and said, “She is not the same person. She has lost it.”
Several points to be made here:
-President Trump’s remarks are nasty. They are personal. And…they are the kinds of things he says about opponents all the time. This kind of behavior is pretty clearly in his DNA, and it’s not going to change – not for Nancy Pelosi or anyone else.
-That said, in just the last several days, Ms. Pelosi has accused Mr. Trump of a “cover-up” (ridiculous, since he is accused of nothing), being villainous, being unfit for his office and in need of a family intervention. OF COURSE he was going to hit back. So would I, or you, or anyone else.
-And – maybe most importantly – the sad reality is that, although Mr. Trump said it in anger, he is right. I have been writing about Nancy Pelosi’s obviously diminished capacity for years. Here’s just one example, from April of last year.
In any case, things are as they are. Donald Trump is the President of the United States whether Nancy Pelosi likes it or not. Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House whether Donald Trump likes it or not.
The country cannot be expected to go into suspended animation while they toss sand (or worse) at each other.
In 1965, when Donald Trump was a teenager and Nancy Pelosi was a young woman, the Beatles put out a song called “We Can Work It Out”. It was a big hit then. It would be an even bigger hit now if both of them would listen to it and think about the message it conveys.
