House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday reacted to President Donald Trump reportedly having law enforcement utilize force to move protesters from Lafayette Square this week for a photo-op at St. John’s Church.
Pelosi, during MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” slammed Trump for “the contradiction and the inconsistency” of him holding up a Bible for the photo in front of the church. She also criticized the “barrage of security” used to clear the protesters, asking if the United States is now a “banana republic.”
“Well, it shows the contradiction and the inconsistency,” Pelosi emphasized. “If you’re going to hold up a Bible and stand in front of a church, then it — what your message should be consistent with that Bible and … those values. And, of course, it was not. His Holiness the Pope has spoken out … in support of the protestors and rejecting violence as we all do, but also I was very proud of the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., who … just was flabbergasted at the thought that a religious institution reduce itself, allow itself to be used, as was the shrine to St. Paul, John Paul yesterday. His statement was very strong.”
“America is a kind nation,” she continued. “America’s heart is full of love. Many people are oriented toward religion and faith-based organizations, play a very strong role in our life, but we have to be consistent. We have to act upon our values. And what happened the other night was an exploitation of the good feelings of the American people by associating themselves with the Bible and with the church, but not in any way in terms of his actions.”
Pelosi added, “My daughter, Alexandra, filmmaker, journalist, was there that night, and she called me, and she said, Mom, you wouldn’t even believe it. These people were demonstrating peacefully, and all of a sudden, this barrage of security came through using clubs to beat people and these explosive — little bullets that explode into stuff that burns your eyes. Maybe they didn’t have tear gas, I don’t know, but they had the elements of it, for peaceful demonstrators to make way — make way for the president to walk through. What is this, a banana republic?”
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