Democrats are furious with President Donald Trump for sharing a cringeworthy video on Thursday of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stammering and slurring words during a news conference. They were joined by multiple mainstream news outlets which accused Trump of sharing a “doctored” video of the House majority leader and perpetuating a false narrative about Pelosi’s mental state.
The truth hurts
Trump is currently embroiled in a feud with Democratic leaders who refuse to let go of a discredited Russia collusion conspiracy. But while a number of videos circulating on the internet were deceptively altered to make it appear as if Pelosi was intoxicated, the 30-second montage tweeted by the president accurately portrayed the California Democrat’s “halting speech patterns” — which aren’t unfamiliar to anyone who watches Pelosi’s weekly pressers.
Originally appearing on Fox Business’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the video of Pelosi’s weekly legislative press briefing included clips from the most embarrassing moments of her discussion with reporters. It was a condensed version of the House speaker’s full 20-minute address which accurately represented her difficulty speaking, and Trump doesn’t owe anyone an apology for sharing it.
“PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE” pic.twitter.com/1OyCyqRTuk
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
“It was worse yesterday with another clip. She could not put a subject with a predicate in the same sentence,” observed Fox News guest host Gregg Jarrett.
“My sense is she has a very big job. I think she’s getting worn down,” said Republican political consultant Ed Rollins, adding that Pelosi has recently become very “inarticulate” for the first time in her career.
Using her own words against her
Despite the fact that the criticism was simply based on Pelosi’s own words (or lack thereof), the liberal mainstream press was outraged. CBS News said the video was “heavily edited” and “cut in such a way as to heighten and emphasize any verbal snafus.”
The speaker’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, said the president was experiencing a “Trumper tantrum” by sharing a “doctored video against Madam Speaker.” Likewise, Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, said the video was “doctored.” But later, he was forced to admit that it wasn’t altered, but simply clipped for brevity.
Other outlets tried tying Trump’s tweet to a different video which was widely circulated on social media and allegedly slows down Pelosi’s speech to make her appear inebriated. The Hill’s John Bowden wrote that Trump’s video “seemed to be intended to augment a similar narrative.”
NBC News even went through the trouble of finding a “digital forensics expert” from the ultra-left University of California, Berkeley, to evaluate the Fox Business video. Computer science professor Hany Farid admitted that the recording was not “slowed down,” but nonetheless called it “deceptive” because “it compiles in rapid succession relatively small verbal stumbles” in order to smear the House majority leader.
Standard media practice
But if that’s the case, why isn’t NBC News attacking their own programming, or the work of their colleagues who regularly use the same editing techniques to slander the president? For instance, NBC News produced a montage in June 2017 that pieces together clips from multiple Trump press conferences and, without context, maligns the president as a serial liar.
A spokesperson for Fox Business responded to the media blowup by pointing out that the video was entirely authentic. “The FOX Business segment featuring clips from Speaker Pelosi’s speech today did not slow down any aspect of her address,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
In fact, the media’s anger should have been directed at Ms. Pelosi, whose Thursday speech called on the president’s staff and family to stage an “intervention.” But punching below the belt is completely admissible for a liberal Democrat; Trump, meanwhile, is being roasted for letting Pelosi’s garbled words speak for themselves.
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