Nancy Pelosi speaks at weekly press conference
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi gave her weekly press conference Thursday. It has been a triumphant week for Pelosi, as she secured enough votes to become House speaker in the incoming Congress on Thursday and stood her ground in a combative Oval Office meeting with President Trump about government funding on Wednesday.
Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that she hoped that Mr. Trump would not allow a government shutdown over funding for the border wall.
"Let's hope that there won't be a shutdown of the government. That's a very bad thing to do. Maybe the president doesn't grasp that, but that is very harmful to our country," Pelosi said.
With a potential government shutdown looming less than two weeks away, Pelosi, the presumptive soon-to-be speaker of the House, told Mr. Trump, "you will not win" on the border wall in her meeting with him on Wednesday. The president demanded border wall funding — and said he's not afraid to shut down the government over it. He said he's proud to do so, and will take credit for it.
Afterwards, Pelosi questioned Mr. Trump's manhood and compared him to a skunk, according to an aide in the room.
"I can't explain it to you. It was so wild," Pelosi told top Democratic legislators after her White House meeting with the president, Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat. "It goes to show you: you get into a tinkle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you."
At her press conference on Thursday, Pelosi also addressed Democratic desire to inspect Mr. Trump's tax returns. She said that while there is "popular demand" for Congress to seek Trump's tax returns, the White House is likely to resist any investigation.
"The question is where do we go from there," she said.