{"id":234871,"date":"2019-10-17T03:09:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T07:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=234871"},"modified":"2019-10-17T03:09:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T07:09:40","slug":"see-you-at-the-polls-trump-and-pelosi-have-it-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/17\/see-you-at-the-polls-trump-and-pelosi-have-it-out\/","title":{"rendered":"‘See you at the polls’: Trump and Pelosi have it out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pelosi<\/a>
And with that President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chalked up the latest explosive meeting that ended abruptly with a walkout at the White House. (File photo<\/a>: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 He said she’s a \u201cthird-grade\u201d politician. She said he’s having a meltdown.<\/p>\n

And with that President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chalked up the latest explosive meeting that ended abruptly with a walkout at the White House.<\/p>\n

It’s a familiar ritual, with Trump and congressional leaders meeting on official business, only to see the session devolve into colorful, name-calling commentary that’s a new kind of addition to the history books. But this time, against the backdrop of the fast-moving impeachment inquiry, Pelosi arrived not just as the leader of the opposing party, but as the speaker who could determine Trump’s political future.<\/p>\n

The administration called in congressional leadership to discuss the situation in Syria. The House had just voted, 354-60, to overwhelmingly oppose the president’s announced U.S. troop withdrawal, a rare bipartisan rebuke. Trump’s action has opened the door for a Turkish military attack on Syrian Kurds who have been aligned with the U.S. in fighting the country’s long-running war.<\/p>\n

Trump kicked off the meeting bragging about his \u201cnasty\u201d letter to Turkish President Recep Erdogan, according to a Democrat familiar with the meeting who was granted anonymity to discuss it. In the letter, Trump warned the Turkish leader, with exclamation points, not to be \u201cslaughtering\u201d the Kurds. The person called Trump’s opening a lengthy, bombastic monologue.<\/p>\n

Pelosi mentioned the House vote and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, started to read the president a quote from former Defence Secretary James Mattis on the need to keep U.S. troops in Syria to prevent a resurgent of Islamic State fighters.<\/p>\n

But Trump cut Schumer off, complaining that Mattis was \u201cthe world’s most overrated general. You know why? He wasn’t tough enough.\u201d Trump went on, \u201cI captured ISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelosi explained to Trump that Russia has always wanted a \u201cfoothold in the Middle East,\u201d and now it has one with the U.S. withdrawal, according to a senior Democratic aide who was also granted anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll roads with you lead to Putin,\u201d the speaker said.<\/p>\n

Then it began.<\/p>\n

Trump said to Pelosi, \u201cI hate ISIS more than you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelosi responded, \u201cYou don’t know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumer intervened at one point and said, \u201cIs your plan to rely on the Syrians and the Turks?\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump replied, \u201cOur plan is to keep the American people safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelosi said: \u201cThat’s not a plan. That’s a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump turned to Pelosi and complained about former President Barack Obama’s \u201cred line\u201d over Syria. According to Schumer, he then called her \u201ca third-rate politician.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point, the genteel Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House Majority Leader, interjected, \u201cThis is not useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelosi and Hoyer stood and left the meeting. As they did, Trump said, \u201cGoodbye, we’ll see you at the polls.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the White House driveway, Pelosi told reporters Trump was having some kind of \u201cmeltdown\u201d inside. She said they had to leave because Trump was unable to grasp the reality of the situation.<\/p>\n

Later, she would insist he even botched the insult, calling her \u201cthird-grade\u201d rather than \u201cthird-rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The impeachment inquiry never came up, she said.<\/p>\n

Trump insisted later on Twitter that it was Pelosi who had a \u201ctotal meltdown,\u201d calling her \u201ca very sick person!\u201d<\/p>\n

He also tweeted pictures from the room. \u201cDo you think they like me?\u201d he asked mockingly about one, showing Pelosi and Schumer looking exhausted and glum.<\/p>\n

\u201cNervous Nancy’s unhinged meltdown!\u201d he tweeted with another.<\/p>\n

In that photo, Pelosi can be seen, surrounded by congressional leaders and military brass around a table at the White House, finger outpointed. She is standing up, literally, to Trump.<\/p>\n

Pelosi turned the photo into the banner on her Twitter page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 He said she’s a \u201cthird-grade\u201d politician. She said he’s having a meltdown. And with that President Donald Trump …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":234872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-lisa-mascaro","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234874,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234871\/revisions\/234874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}