Addressing reporters Thursday morning after the announcement that the House is officially drafting articles of impeachment, House Speaker and longtime Congresswoman from San Francisco Nancy Pelosi responded sternly to a reporter's question about whether she "hates" President Trump.
"Don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that," Pelosi told the reporter, who CNN says was working for the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group. Pelosi was on her way out of the room from her weekly press conference when the reporter lobbed the question, and she returned to the microphone to reply.
"I don't hate anybody," she said. "I think this President is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence. I think that he is cruel when he doesn't deal with helping our Dreamers, of which we are very proud of. I think he is in denial about the climate crisis. However, that's about the election. This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the President's violation of his oath of office. And as a Catholic, I resent your using the word 'hate' in a sentence that addresses me. I don't hate anyone."
She added that she "pray[s] for the President all the time."
A reporter asks Nancy Pelosi if she "hates the president."
— ABC News (@ABC) December 5, 2019
"I don't hate anybody," she says in a strong response. "As a Catholic, I resent your using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me...Don't mess with me when it comes to words like that." https://t.co/4KnkeaNelL pic.twitter.com/C8HVeWMXE2Something pretty remarkable just happened- on her way out, Speaker #Pelosi got a question shouted at her asking if she hates the president. She turned back around, got back to the podium and very sternly said this. pic.twitter.com/0QyXdvIqAp
— Joe Khalil (@JoeKhalilTV) December 5, 2019
Pelosi tried to stress during the press conference that the impeachment process "isn't about politics, partisanship, Democrats and Republicans," calling such conflicts "insignificant" in the face of the current constitutional crisis.
She further said that the House would not be waiting for courts to decide on whether witnesses called would be forced to testify after being told not to by the President. She added that the White House's choice to take these issues to court "is an obstruction of justice, and so we're not going to be accomplices to his obstruction of justice."
The country remains divided on the impeachment itself, with little movement in poll numbers since the inquiry began. Five Thirty Eight says, via an Ipsos survey, that the impeachment hearings did little to change the public's opinion since the beginning of November — 47 percent still support impeachment while 44 percent remain opposed, and this is while 57 percent of Americans believe that Trump committed an impeachable offense.
73.5 percent of Democrats polled believe Trump should be removed from office, while only 12.5 percent of Republicans believe the same. Meanwhile, 16.5 percent of Democrats and 7 percent of Republicans surveyed believe Trump committed an impeachable offense, but that voters should decide whether to remove him.
"The facts are uncontested," Pelosi said in a statement this morning. "The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security, by withholding military aid and a crucial Oval Office meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival."
You can read all of Pelosi's official statement on the impeachment here.