At last year’s State of the Union speech, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became a meme and cemented her status as a resistance hero as she condescendingly clapped at President Trump after Democrats reclaimed the House. On Tuesday night, she embodied the caucus of sore losers to whom she handed reins of the Democratic Party, ripping up a copy of Trump’s remarkable, and remarkably positive, State of the Union address like a toddler in the midst of a tantrum.
But Pelosi had to make a scene. After all, not only will Trump likely best her with an acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial on Wednesday, but she also had to detract from the best of her bitty brats making a mockery of the party on national television.
For all that Trump may thrive on negative partisanship and lambasting his enemies, his State of the Union address had hardly a word antagonizing mainstream Democrats. He spent the bulk of his introduction touting the economy’s gains, especially for low-income and minority workers, and then a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill and trade deals. The only potshot directly lobbed at any Democrat was his worthwhile dig at socialized health insurance, and he postured against late-term abortion and literal open borders.
If there were any Trump speech to clap for placidly, this was it, and if there were any moment to do so, now, on the eve of the conclusion of an impeachment trial claiming to appeal to a return to decorum and normalcy, was the time to do it.
And yet, the dregs of the Democratic Party couldn’t help throwing themselves into the spotlight and making a mockery of their moderate colleagues that won them the House.
It’s a little unnerving that Rep. Jackie Speier would walk out after Trump urged Congress to ban the abortion of fully viable and sentient third-trimester fetuses. But it’s downright astounding that Democrats would defy Trump’s celebration of national heroes and successes.
Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib spent most of the night checking their phones and talking during Trump’s speech. But they couldn’t be bothered to stand for Charles McGee, one of the first black fighter pilots in the nation’s history and a decorated war hero. Not only that, but Democrats also refused to stand for Janiyah Davis, a fourth grader earning an opportunity scholarship from Trump, nor did they for totally nonpartisan feats such as record-low black unemployment. Pelosi could be spotted tepidly clapped as Trump reiterated his killing of terrorist Qassem Soleimani, but she couldn’t be bothered to stand.
One of the best cases against Trump’s presidency was his limited patience for the performance of Beltway norms. But tonight further proved that Trump could troll his competitors into throwing them away with even less class or care than he is apt to do on a bad day.
