WASHINGTON _ Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to a reporter in a short-tempered way after he suggested the California Democrat hates President Donald Trump.
The reporter had shouted the question to Pelosi about whether she hates Trump after she had ended her weekly press conference and was walking away from the podium. The speaker stopped and answered, clearly offended.
"I don't hate anybody," she said, telling the reporter not to accuse her of hating anyone. Pelosi then criticized the reporter for his question.
Then Pelosi returned to the podium to address the matter further, an extremely rare, if not unprecedented move.
"As a Catholic, I resent your using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me," she said. "Don't mess with me when it comes to words like that."
The reporter clarified that he was asking a question and that Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., had made that suggestion.
"You did. You did," Pelosi shot back.
"I think the president is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence. I think he is cruel when he doesn't deal with helping our dreamers. ... I think he's in denial about the climate crisis," she said. "However that's about the election. Take it up in the election. This is about the Constitution."
