House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to clarify her description of federal police in Portland as “storm troopers” following criticism from Attorney General William Barr by claiming she only said they “acted” like storm troopers.
“I said they acted like storm troopers,” Pelosi said after MSNBC’s Ari Melber showed her a clip of Barr calling her irresponsible during congressional testimony Tuesday for labeling federal officers with a reference to a Nazi paramilitary group. “And they did. And my colleagues have said that as well.”
.@SpeakerPelosi tries clarifying that she said federal police “acted like” stormtroopers but weren’t literally “stormtroopers” pic.twitter.com/Jiq7dqSYFf
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 28, 2020
Pelosi’s comment is at odds with a tweet she posted on July 17. She wrote: “Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti. These are not the actions of a democratic republic. @DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission. Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.”
Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti.
These are not the actions of a democratic republic.@DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission.
Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 18, 2020
During the MSNBC appearance, Pelosi called the treatment of protesters in Washington’s Lafayette Square in June a “disgrace” before referring to Barr as a “blob.”
“I am an organizer. That’s how I came into all of this, chair of the California Democratic Party, and peaceful protest is who we are and what we do,” Pelosi said. “And do some other people come along and try to disrupt? Yes. But you don’t send in people acting like storm troopers into the scene and evoking even more, even more unease and unrest. He should be answering for what he did at Lafayette Square, a disgrace.”
“So this — it’s really — he was like a blob. He was like a — just a henchman for the president of the United States instead of the attorney general of the United States of America.”
Barr was on Capitol Hill testifying before the House Judiciary Committee when he called Pelosi irresponsible following a question from Rep. Doug Collins about the language the speaker and fellow Democrats have used to label federal officers protecting federal property from rioters in Portland.
The use of force to quell the riots and protect government property was a topic that came up several times during the hearing, and Barr defended the decision to mobilize federal officers. In his prepared opening remarks, he said, “Peaceful protesters do not throw explosives into federal courthouses.”
