Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former leader of the House Democrats and a two-time speaker of the House, said ex-president Donald Trump looked afraid at his arraignment Thursday on federal charges of election obstruction and conspiracy.
“I wasn’t in the courtroom of course, but when I saw his coming out of his car or this and that, I saw a scared puppy,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday in an interview on “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC.
“He looked very, very, very concerned about the fate,” she continued. “I didn’t see any bravado or confidence or anything like that. He knows. He knows the truth, that he lost the election and now he’s got to face the music.”
Pelosi would be familiar with Trump’s body language, having dealt with him as the leader of the House Democrats in 2017 and 2018 and then as speaker of the House in 2019 and 2020.
And she hasn’t been shy about criticizing Trump. In 2020, she ripped up on camera her written copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech as soon as he finished it, saying afterward, “It was the courteous thing to do, considering the alternatives.”
And in 2019, a picture went viral of Pelosi standing up and pointing a finger at Trump during a White House meeting with him and many other White House and congressional officials.
“I wasn’t in the courtroom of course, but when I saw his coming out of his car or this or that, I saw a scared puppy.”
– Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
Pelosi stepped aside as Democratic leader after the Democrats lost House control in the 2022 midterms. She is now speaker emerita and still represents a San Francisco-area House district.
In the wake of some House Republicans saying they want to examine impeaching President Joe Biden over unproven allegations of bribery dating back to before he was president, Pelosi challenged them to go ahead.
“This is frivolous, this is a diversionary tactic,” she said on Friday.
“If they want to subject their members, who are in difficult districts, subject them to that, bring it on. Just bring it on,” Pelosi said. “It’s not going to go any place.”