White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi surrendered to the demands of men in changing her mind about backing an impeachment inquiry.
The issue of gender came up as Conway addressed reporters outside the White House on Friday.
“Now they’re getting their wish: Nancy Pelosi finally capitulated to her angry mob,” Conway said before claiming Pelosi suddenly changed her mind over the course of a couple hours.
“At 1 p.m. on Tuesday, she told the Atlantic Festival — pull it everyone — ‘No, no, we need an investigation first. We’re not close to impeachment. We need investigation first.’ A couple hours later, she does the worst thing a woman in power can do, which is she just changes her mind because the men around her said, ‘Change your mind. We need an impeachment.’ She did that without seeing the transcript of the call, the memo of the call,” Conway said.
.@KellyannePolls on @SpeakerPelosi: “She does the worse thing a woman in power can do, which is she just changes her mind because the men around her said, ‘change your mind. We need an impeachment.’ She did that without seeing the transcript…” pic.twitter.com/Ef1nALWW0z
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 27, 2019
When Pelosi made an appearance at the Atlantic Festival on Tuesday, she already had a meeting with the Democratic caucus scheduled for later in the day and an announcement afterwards. She was asked about impeachment and spoke about the gravity of taking such a course of action, but did not give a definitive answer about whether where she stood.
Later that afternoon, Pelosi announced her support for a formal impeachment inquiry, citing Trump’s admission that he talked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, as the reason that led to her decision.
The transcript of that July 25 call was released soon after, but the details of which were reported for days, and an intelligence community whistleblower complaint about it show Trump urged Zelensky to investigate the Bidens at a time when Joe Biden is a leading Democratic candidate for president. Trump insists he did nothing wrong, claiming there was no quid pro quo, but the complaint raises questions about whether he improperly leveraged military aid and then sought to hide the transcript of the call.
In her combative exchange with reporters, Conway said Pelosi “went out there with a conclusion in search of evidence.” She also suggested the the Ukraine controversy will be politically damaging to Democrats.
“I think people are getting worried. And by the way, if this is what the way Congress wants to spend their time, then I guarantee you the American people, who are wise and smart people, God bless them all, they will see what’s not getting done,” Conway said.
