The ranking member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, Representative Lee Zeldin (R-NY), has called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to step down from her leadership position after her disrespectful actions immediately following the State of the Union address by President Trump Tuesday. The Speaker stood and ripped up her copy of the State of the Union address given to her by the President.
Nancy Pelosi should step down as Speaker. I'm confident that the American public will be directly sending her that message themselves later this year if she doesn't read the tea leaves herself and resign on her own terms today. It's time.
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) February 6, 2020
After her allegedly spontaneous action, video demonstrated that she pre-ripped the pages in the middle of the speech in preparation for her staged act of resistance. Representatives Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar have filed separate complaints against the Speaker as a result.
With Pelosi in charge of Congress and a Democratic Party majority still in place, it’s unlikely anything will come from the complaints. Zeldin’s call may be the only thing to remove her before the November election, at which point Republicans hope to regain control of the House.
Defenders have said Pelosi’s actions were justified based on the content of the speech, but it has been well-received by most Americans, including many Democrats. It was mostly positive and upbeat with strong emotional content that exemplified where we are as a nation and where we’re heading. Many Democrats are bitter over the success the nation is experiencing as unprecedented prosperity, low unemployment rates, and improved national security have marked the President’s first term.
Moreover, the months leading up to this election year have been especially good for America. Our terrorist enemies are being eliminated while our national enemies are on the ropes. Violent crimes are trending downward despite calls by gun control advocates that everyone is in danger because of the 130 million Americans who own firearms. The unemployment rate has been at record-low levels for seven consecutive months. The only political plays the Democrats have in their playbook are impeachment, which failed, and the unhinged “Resistance” movement which Pelosi is apparently now leading.
It was unbecoming for Nancy Pelosi to utilize such a blatant publicity stunt to take attention away from the Democrats’ multiple failures this week. She does not represent her caucus well, let alone the lower chamber. Her time is up as Speaker.
