House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat stone-faced during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night, flipping through the pages of the copy in front of her. And when he was done stretching the truth beyond recognition, she stood up and theatrically ripped the pages in half.
When a Fox News reporter asked Pelosi why she ripped up the speech, she said, “It was the courteous thing to do…considering the alternatives.”
It did not take long for the White House to issue a response, tweeting: “Speaker Pelosi just ripped up: One of our last surviving Tuskegee Airmen. The survival of a child born at 21 weeks. The mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller. A service member’s reunion with his family. That’s her legacy.”
Retired Brigadier General Charles McGee, 100, one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, the famed group of all Black, military pilots that fought in WWII, was recognized at the State of the Union, along with his 13-year-old great grandson Iain Lanphier. The other families mentioned in the tweet were also present as Trump’s guests.
While there are some Trump supporters who criticized Pelosi’s action—and some Democrats—Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich), who made an appearance on MSNBC to talk about the blatant propaganda and lies throughout Trump’s speech, tweeted that she would have gone even further.
“I would have shredded it.”