House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday she has no plans to use the House rules to punish Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., for exclaiming, “You lie,” during President Obama’s speech Wednesday night.
Wilson’s made the remark, pointing his finger at the podium, when Obama told Congress his health care reform bill would not cover illegal immigrants. Obama Thursday accepted Wilson’s apology, but it still left open the fact that it is against House rules to make defamatory remarks in the chamber.
“Yes, there is a procedure that could have been implemented,” Pelosi told reporters who pressed her on the matter. “I think that the president did the right thing, just continued on from it and didn’t give it any more attention than it deserved.”
Pelosi called Wilson’s remarks “stunning,” and said under normal circumstances it would have constituted unparliamentary speech. Under the House rules, there is not much that can be done to punish a member, however, other than not allowing the offender to speak on the floor for the remainder of the day. From the look on Wilson’s face after he made the comment, he probably wouldn’t have objected to that.
Wilson on Thursday called his accusation “spontaneous.”
