February 6, 2020

Nancy Pelosi Condemns Trump’s State of the Union as a “Manifesto of Mistruths”

She doesn’t want the House chamber to be used as “a backdrop for one of his reality shows.”

Caroline Brehman/Congressional Quarterly/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Addressing the press Thursday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address—which she dramatically and controversially tore up—as a “manifesto of mistruths.”

Pelosi fact-checked the president’s claims on Tuesday night that he had inherited an economic “mess” from former President Barack Obama. “When President Obama came into office, the unemployment rate was 10 percent,” she said. “When he left, it was 5 percent. So President Trump did not inherit a mess—he inherited a momentum.” She also credited Obama for the boosts to the stock market and the reduction in the national debt, which has ballooned as a result of the Trump tax cuts.

“We do not want the chamber of the House of Representatives to be used as a backdrop for one of his reality shows,” Pelosi said, “with unreality in his presentation.” Pelosi has faced criticism for ripping up her copy of the president’s address, but she insisted Thursday that it was the Republicans in Congress who had acted with impropriety. Referring to the chants, a staple of Trump rallies, that erupted from the chamber before Trump spoke, she added, “And by the way, a serious breach to start shouting, ‘four more years’ on the floor of the House. Totally inappropriate.”

Watch the video below:

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate