Trump tweets heavily edited video of Pelosi played by Fox Business
President Trump tweeted out a selectively edited video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday night that played earlier in the evening on Fox Business host Lou Dobbs' show, as his verbal spar with the top Democrat escalates.
The video, which pulls from snippets of Pelosi's Thursday press conference in which she suggested the president's staff or family should stage an intervention, is cut in such a way as to heighten and emphasize any verbal snafus. "PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE," Mr. Trump tweeted, paraphrasing the headline Fox Business displayed.
Questions from reporters about Pelosi's comments on Thursday prompted the president to further attack the House speaker, suggesting she lacks the mental capacity to comprehend his U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Describing her "crazy" and a "mess," the president also claimed Pelosi is not the person she once was.
A spokesperson for Fox Business defended the show's use of the video clip. "The FOX Business segment featuring clips from Speaker Pelosi's speech today did not slow down any aspect of her address," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Mr. Trump pinned the tweet and attached video to the top of his Twitter profile, before unpinning the tweet. The tweet is still up.
It wasn't the only misleading Pelosi video circulating overnight. According to The Washington Post, other distorted, slowed-down videos of Pelosi have spread across social media to make her appear drunk.
One of those videos was tweeted out by the president's own personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who questioned Pelosi's speech, suggesting her speech pattern was "bizarre." But Giuliani's own speech pattern was questioned when he tweeted an incoherent statement about the Pelosi video Friday morning.
Pelosi supporters believe the sexist attacks on her only serve to make her stronger in her caucus. Republicans' strategy in trying to attack her ahead of the midterms, they believe, was a failure that led to the election of a record number of women. Pelosi, further, does not drink.
In a conference in Houston on Friday, Hillary Clinton called the video "sexist trash."
"But it is also a sign that Trump is running scared," Clinton said.
The escalating tensions between the two top U.S. politicians comes ahead of Mr. Trump's visit to Japan, where he's likely to hold a news conference at some point, according to a senior administration official. When Pelosi was abroad in the United Kingdom earlier this month, she made a point not to attack the president, but it remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump will do the same.
