Pelosi Snaps When Reporter Asks If She Hates Trump: “Don’t Mess With Me”

She really is "Nervous Nancy" isn't she?

Reuters had the following to say about the ordeal: 

On most days, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempts to position herself as the tough but calm and controlled counterweight to President Donald Trump, who many Republicans applaud for being confrontational and unpredictable.

On Thursday, the country’s top elected Democrat allowed her anger to show when a Sinclair Broadcast reporter she previously referred to as “Mr. Republican talking point” asked whether she hated Trump. 

Pelosi had just finished methodically spelling out how she was advancing impeachment proceedings against Trump while shepherding legislation such as a bill to lower prescription drug costs. 

After reporter James Rosen asked his question, she indignantly told him: “Don’t mess with me.”  

“I don’t hate anybody,” Pelosi declared. “I was raised in a Catholic house. We don’t hate anybody. Not anybody in the world. So don’t you accuse me,” she said, pointing at the reporter.  

Sinclair Broadcast Group is a conservative-leaning media company that Trump has tweeted support for. It owns or operates nearly 200 U.S. television stations. 

Rosen told Pelosi he posed the question because some Republicans say the Democrats’ impeachment effort is driven by a dislike of Trump. The Republican president has blasted the inquiry over his dealings with Ukraine as a hoax. 

Pelosi used her answer to tear into Trump, calling him a “coward” for refusing to get behind gun control measures, “cruel” for abandoning young immigrants known as “Dreamers” who were brought to the United States illegally as children, and for being “in denial” about climate change. 

The Washington Post gave further details:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had just concluded her weekly news conference Thursday and was about to exit the room when a reporter shouted out a question.

“Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?” James Rosen, a reporter for Sinclair Broadcast Group, called out from a seat in the front row.

Most times, Pelosi ignores questions shouted at her in the hallways and briefing rooms of the Capitol.

But Rosen’s query appeared to strike a nerve with Pelosi, who stopped in her tracks, turned to face the reporter and delivered an extraordinary rebuttal.

“I don’t hate anybody,” Pelosi said sternly, pointing her finger at Rosen, a reporter she has dismissed as “Mr. Republican Talking Points.” Pelosi then referenced her Catholic upbringing and told Rosen, “Don’t accuse me.”

“I did not accuse you,” the reporter shot back. “I asked a question.”

As the impeachment fight ramps up, President Trump and Republicans have increasingly made the argument that Democrats are pursuing their inquiry simply because they “hate” the president.

Rosen noted that Rep. Douglas A. Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, argued during Wednesday’s hearing on impeachment that Democrats are seeking to remove Trump simply out of personal animus toward him.

“I think it’s an important point,” Rosen added.

Pelosi then returned to the lectern and elaborated on her thoughts about Trump.

The president is a “coward” when it comes to addressing gun violence, “cruel” in his policy toward young people who were brought illegally to the United States as children and “in denial” about the climate crisis, she argued.

“However, that’s about the election,” Pelosi said, adding that impeachment “is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the president’s violation of his oath of office.”

She then said she was offended by the suggestion that she hates anyone.

“As a Catholic, I resent your using the word ‘hate’ in a sentence that addresses me,” she said. “I don’t hate anyone. I was raised in a way that is a heart full of love, and [I] always pray for the president, and I still pray for the president. I pray for the president all the time. So, don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that.”