House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s “manhood” dig at President Trump on Tuesday was one in a string of several gender-barbed zingers she’s thrown at Trump in recent months.
After her tense White House meeting with Trump over government spending, Pelosi, D-Calif., told her aides privately, “I was trying to be the mom,” according to Politico. “It goes to show you: You get into a tinkle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you.”
The incoming speaker continued: “It’s like a manhood thing with him — as if manhood can be associated with him.”
Pelosi has made gender a prominent theme in her remarks when talking about politics. Just days before last month’s midterm elections, Pelosi told CNN her pursuit of the speakership was inspired, in part, to empower women who felt dejected after Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
“I want women to see that you do not get pushed around,” she said during the interview with CNN.
Once the Democrats took back control of the House, Pelosi insisted that insurgents within the party could not afford to oust the only woman in their leadership team.
“You cannot have the four leaders of Congress … the president of the United States, these five people, and not have the voice of women,” Pelosi told “Face the Nation” after the election. “Especially since women were the majority of the voters, the workers in campaigns, and now part of this glorious victory.”
Once the new Congress begins, the Senate will be led by four men: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., John Thune, R-S.D., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Pelosi has been quick to point out this discrepancy, while bemoaning what she characterizes as condescension from her male colleagues on Capitol Hill.
“McConnell. I mean, he’s got the lowest numbers of anybody in the world. Have you ever gone up to him and said, ‘How much longer do you think you’ll stay in this job?’” Pelosi said during a July interview with Rolling Stone after being asked herself whether she might step down. “Nobody ever went up to Harry Reid and said that. Nobody ever says that to anybody except a woman. But it’s a thing.”
