President Donald Trump has just found his nickname for Nancy Pelosi. The president called the Speaker “Crazy Nancy” Thursday amid an escalating war of words with his rival. Speaking to reporters one day after Pelosi accused him of a criminal “cover up” without proof, Trump said that his rival has “lost it.”
“She’s a mess, look, let’s face it,” Trump said at a White House presser Thursday.
Trump, Pelosi trade insults
Trump abruptly cut off a meeting with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to discuss infrastructure Wednesday over the “cover-up” remark, prompting Pelosi to accuse Trump of a “temper tantrum.” At her own press conference Thursday, Pelosi said that she would pray for Trump’s soul and asked his family to stage an “intervention” for “the good of the country.” Trump responded with a wink on social media, tweeting, “Nancy, thank you so much for your prayers, I know you truly mean it!”
After ditching the infrastructure meeting Wednesday, Trump held a spontaneous press conference in the Rose Garden where he demanded that Democrats end their investigations before negotiations continue. Speaking from a podium decorated with a sign that read, “No collusion, no obstruction,” Trump ripped the Russia probe, the media, and the Democrats for continuing to investigate him. The Democrats accused Trump of planning to walk out of the meeting and using their investigations as an excuse, but Pelosi’s accusation that Trump committed a crime seems to have put Trump over the top.
The insults have gotten nastier in the wake of the aborted meeting Wednesday. Speaking at another fiery press conference at the White House Thursday, Trump fired back at Pelosi over her latest round of insults, accusing his rival of not understanding trade deals and labeling the 79-year old Pelosi as “crazy” and “disintegrating.” “She does not understand it. And [administration trade officials] sort of feel she is disintegrating before their eyes,” Trump said, referring to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
“Crazy Nancy”
Until now, Trump has refrained from giving the Speaker a derogatory nickname like he has done with many of his rivals, making the “crazy” remark notable. Trump has also used “crazy” to describe certain foes like Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Trump contrasted himself with “crazy” Pelosi, declaring that he is “an extremely stable genius.” The president denied Pelosi’s claim that he threw a “temper tantrum” the day before and asked White House staffers at the presser to confirm his version of events. The president also said that Pelosi’s “intervention” remark was “a very nasty type of statement.”
Pelosi fired back on Twitter, tweeting, “When the “extremely stable genius” starts acting more presidential, I’ll be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues.”
Feud gets personal
While Trump and Pelosi are long-time political rivals, the personal feud that erupted between the two Wednesday matched the bitterness of their government shutdown fight earlier this year, when Pelosi made jibes about Trump’s manhood. The row threw talks on infrastructure — one of the few issues in which the polarized government could arguably find some common ground — off track and threatened to imperil future bipartisan deals.
The feud got more intense Thursday night when Trump shared an edited video of Pelosi “stammering” through her weekly press conference. While the video was cut up to highlight Pelosi’s flubs, the Speaker did stammer through the speech. The video that Trump shared was not the same as other videos shared on conservative social media Thursday that were deceptively edited to make Pelosi sound drunk.
The Speaker continued bashing Trump at the press conference Thursday, where Pelosi, for the second time in as many days, accused Trump of a “cover-up” and said that she would pray for him. Pelosi also repeated her “temper tantrum” claim from the day before and pleaded with Trump’s family and administration to stage an “intervention.”
“The president stormed out, pounded the table, walked out the door,” Pelosi told reporters. “Another temper tantrum, again, I pray for the president of the United States. I wish that his family, the administration, and his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.”
Asked by a reporter what she meant by an intervention, Pelosi joked that she thought the journalist was referring to the 25th Amendment, which allows the president to be removed from office. Pelosi called the intervention a “good idea” and had a laugh with the press corps. “Oh, I thought you said statutory intervention. That would be good, Article 25,” Pelosi said laughing. “That’s a good idea, I’m glad you suggested it. I’ll take it up with my caucus, not that they haven’t been thinking about it.”
“Do nothing” Dems
The Democrats are eager to make Trump own the infrastructure gridlock, much like they did during the government shutdown over the border wall. Schumer and Pelosi accused Trump of pulling a “stunt,” pointing out that negotiations were going well at the first infrastructure meeting a few weeks before, when the Democrats’ investigations were already underway. Pelosi suggested Thursday that Trump actually wants to be impeached and that the Wednesday walk-out was an attempt to goad the Democrats into going down that path.
For his part, Trump has relentlessly blasted the “do nothing” Democrats since Wednesday, accusing them of wanting a “do-over” of the Mueller probe. “It’s a do-nothing Congress. The Democrats have done nothing in the House. They have done absolutely nothing other than investigate,” a frustrated Trump said at the presser Thursday.
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