'What is this, a banana republic?': Pelosi unloads on Trump over gassing of protesters outside White House
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed dismay Wednesday at what happened outside the White House on Monday evening when security forces used tear gas and flash-bangs against a crowd of peaceful demonstrators to clear the area for the president.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Pelosi said that her daughter Alexandra, a filmmaker and journalist, was at the scene that night and called her to tell her about what she had witnessed.
“She said: 'Mom, you wouldn't even believe it. These people were demonstrating peacefully. And all of a sudden, this barrage of security came through using clubs to beat people and these explosive scat little bullets that explode into stuff that burns your eyes,’” the speaker said.
“What is this, a banana republic?” Pelosi added.
The speaker said that President Donald Trump’s decision to visit St. John’s Episcopal Church after the crowd was dispersed and hold a photo-op holding up a Bible showed “contradiction” and “inconsistency.”
“If you're going to hold up a Bible and stand in front of a church, then your message should be consistent with that Bible and those values. And of course, it was not,” she said.
Pelosi called the protests occurring across the country after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last week an “inflection point” in which people are seeing real opportunity to make their voices heard.
