Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who stepped down from her leadership position two years ago, will not attend President-elect Donald J. It has been announced that a long-standing feud has escalated. His antagonist from his first term.
A spokeswoman did not give a reason for Pelosi’s absence, but the former speaker made no secret of her disdain for Trump, calling him unfit for office and a “stain on our country.” She led the chamber that impeached him twice, tearing up a copy of his memorable State of the Union address while standing behind him on national television.
Pelosi, 84, is still recovering from a hip replacement after falling during an official visit to Luxembourg, but she attended the House vote and said her injury does not prevent her from doing other work. do not have.
As Democratic minority leader at the time, she attended Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. wearing buttons They protested Trump’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But as a retired leader, she has the flexibility to skip the Washington ceremony and issue a statement in absentia. She also omitted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress last year.
Pelosi has frequently sparred verbally with Trump in the minority, and from almost the moment Democrats took back the House majority in 2019, Pelosi and the president have been engaged in serious political negotiations over government funding and his first impeachment. They collided in a struggle. Fireworks have also been set off during face-to-face meetings, such as during the 2020 State of the Union address when Trump refused to shake Pelosi’s hand and Pelosi tore up the speech.
On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, destroying Pelosi’s office and posing for photos with her boots on her desk. Hostility reached a climax. Days later, Pelosi moved to impeach Trump for a second time. After an intruder broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home and attacked her husband, Paul, Trump amplified baseless conspiracy theories that the attack was not real.
“What was unfortunate for my children, my grandchildren, my husband, and myself is that President Trump thought this was funny,” Pelosi said in an interview with The New York Times in November. “He made it a joke.”
