It was surely the wrong call for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s advance bookers to schedule her giving a speech to a crowd that was waiting to see Metallica, and the expected chorus of boos rained down on her as a result.
It has been an unwritten rule in politics ever since the day of President Harry Truman that a politician is going to get booed lustily if they appear at a pop culture event. Want to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a ballgame? You’re going to get booed! Just ask George W. Bush, Barack Obama, or Donald Trump. It is a no-win situation, regardless of the location or the culture of the event. Politicians would do best to leave their speeches to C-SPAN or the like.
Yet someone in Nancy Pelosi’s office did not realize this. You see Pelosi above, alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas, at Saturday night’s Global Citizen music festival in New York. And you see her below getting booed, as SFGate reports, because the crowd is waiting to hear feature performers Metallica and Mariah Carey, not some goddamned comments from Nancy Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi gets savagely booed while appearing at Global Citizen festival in Central Park NYC to talk about climate change #GlobalCitizenFestival pic.twitter.com/gD7eyNoTSx
— Megan Palin (@Megan_Palin) September 25, 2022
The above video does not really live up to the “savagely booed” description of the original poster (who is a Fox News and New York Post contributor BTW). But the video below is from deeper in the peanut gallery, and shows that people clearly were booing Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi is getting booed at #GlobalCitizenFestival hearing lots of “you’re the problem” & “do your job” #USA #USpoli #politics pic.twitter.com/x3rreweRhz
— Aliya Hirji (@aliya_hirji_) September 25, 2022
I admit that I am not terribly familiar with the Global Citizen Festival, which was held in New York’s Central Park Saturday, and whose website claims it has a mission of “actions toward ending extreme poverty.” Though the website’s focus on selling merchandise and acknowledging their “Partners” like Cisco, Procter & Gamble, and Verizon will make you wonder about that.
Democrats boo Nancy Pelosi at NYC "global citizens festival."pic.twitter.com/0f3aU65bvJ
— Wendell Husebø (@WendellHusebo) September 25, 2022
This is not going to be a lasting political problem for Pelosi. But it should be a lesson: Do not speak at pop culture festivals where people are not interested in hearing political speeches. After all, Speaker Pelosi, you are not Charli XCX, and fans will not crash security gates in hopes of seeing Nancy Pelosi.
Related: Even if Dems Retain House Majority, They’re Privately Discussing Dumping Pelosi as Speaker [SFist]
Image: NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 24: Nancy Pelosi and Priyanka Chopra at the 2022 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on September 24, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by NDZ/Star Max/GC Images)
