Fact Check: Trump Says Pelosi Danced in Chinatown as Democrats Criticized Him for Restricting Travel from China

CLAIM: President Trump said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was “dancing on the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco” as she and other Democrats, including Joe Biden (D), criticized him for shutting down travel from China to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

VERDICT: MOSTLY TRUE. While it is unclear if Pelosi literally “danced” in the streets, she, indeed, visited Chinatown and promoted tourism to the area in February while simultaneously “working with House Democrats to try to block Trump’s ability to executively issue travel bans,” as Breitbart News detailed.

“Just to finish this, when I closed, he said I shouldn’t have closed,” President Trump said after Biden suggested the president did not restrict travel soon enough. “And that went on for months. What — Nancy Pelosi said the same thing. She was dancing on the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco.”

“But when I closed, he said this is a terrible thing. You’re xenophobic. I think he called me racist, even. And because I was closing it to China. Now he says I should’ve closed it earlier. Just Joe, I didn’t work,” he continued.

Biden denied Trump’s assertions, adding, “I talked about xenophobia in a different context. It wasn’t about closing the border to the Chinese coming to the United States.”

Indeed, Pelosi visited Chinatown in San Francisco and spoke to local media on February 24, telling them, “we should come to Chinatown,” adding that it was “very safe”:

Precautions have been taken by our city. We know that there is concern surrounding tourism, traveling all throughout the world, but we think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come. It’s lovely here. The food is delicious, the shops are prospering, the parade was great. Walking tours continue. Please come and visit and enjoy Chinatown.

At the same time, Pelosi actively worked with Democrats on the No Ban Act to “prohibit religious discrimination in our immigration system and limit the President’s ability to impose such biased and bigoted restrictions,” as Pelosi detailed.

“We will never allow hatred or bigotry to define our nation or destroy our values,” she said at the time.

The No Ban Act “would have allowed travelers from Wuhan, China — the origin of the coronavirus — to continue to arrive in the U.S. while Trump received guidance from Congress,” as Breitbart News detailed.