Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi excused freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s language in a now-viral vulgar video calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump on Friday.
Joy Reid asked Pelosi about Tlaib saying the Democrats were going to “impeach that motherf**ker,” at a town hall on Friday. The day before Pelosi became the Speaker of the House for the second time.
WATCH:
“So, you are not concerned at all about the way that the president’s base will react to the idea of the incoming Democratic caucus coming in with the idea already prebaked into the cake — [that] they are going to go and get him; you guys will go and get him?” Reid asked. (RELATED: Sarah Sanders To Rashida Tlaib: ‘You Will Not Impeach This President’)
“You have to weigh the equities. That is not the position of the House Democratic Caucus. The equity to be weighed is: that’s freedom of speech of an individual member. As I said, generationally, that would not be the language I would use, but nonetheless, I don’t think we should make a big deal of it. I really don’t,” Pelosi began.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, speaks during a press conference at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC on November 6, 2018. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
She continued, “That’s probably the way people talk. Again, I’m a grandmother. It’s a different story. Words weigh a ton, and the president has to realize that his words weigh a ton, too. Some of the words that he used [have] a direct impact on people’s lives. My colleagues’ comments do not have an impact on people’s lives.”
We got congresspeople out here calling the president a mother fucker pic.twitter.com/GCXSPQbPb8
— Barstool News Network (@BarstoolNewsN) January 4, 2019
The Palestinian-American was the caught using the language late Thursday night, the same day she was sworn in as the representative from Michigan’s 13th district.
This segment between Reid and Pelosi was teased prior to the airing of the entire event.
In an interview with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie the day before, Pelosi didn’t rule out impeachment. She said, “Well we have to wait and see what happens with the Mueller report. We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason. We just have to see how it comes.”