CNN
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Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is “playing politics” with the idea of removing two impeachments of former President Donald Trump.
“Kevin, you know, is playing politics. It’s not even clear if he can unconstitutionally remove things. If he wants to put his members in place, his members in difficult races in place, that’s a decision he has to make. But it’s not responsible,” Pelosi told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
McCarthy said in a private call with Trump that he personally supports the idea of removing both impeachments of the former president and bringing it to the conference to gauge support. However, he has not scheduled a floor vote, and when asked about the idea Thursday, McCarthy said it would have to “go through committee like anything else.”
The California Republican worked overtime to appease Trump after an interview last month in which McCarthy said he thought the former president could win in 2024 but didn’t know if he was the “strongest” candidate, prompting anger among Trump advisers and allies. McCarthy called Trump to apologize after the interview, claiming he misspoke to CNBC, sources told CNN.
“It’s about fear. As I said before, Donald Trump is the puppeteer. And what does he do all the time but shine the light on the strings? These people seem pathetic,” Pelosi said Sunday.
Pelosi also called the recent “Weaponization of the Federal Government” hearing from a GOP-led panel a “clown show.”
The hearing saw Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proving that he has never been anti-vaccination, racist or antisemitic, despite the fact that he has promoted a litany of conspiracy and discriminatory statements over the years.
Republicans have called Kennedy and others as witnesses as part of their probe into alleged censorship against conservatives by major technology companies.
“What a ridiculous clown show, again, on the part of the Republicans,” Pelosi said.
A member of the House of Representatives since 1987, Pelosi would not say whether she plans to run for reelection.
Turning to the economy, Pelosi said Sunday she was “very proud” of President Joe Biden’s record but urged him to “get out there” and articulate new economic trends.
“This president has done an extraordinary job. He is a person with such knowledge, such vision for the country, such knowledge of issues, such strategic thinking and as a legislator, and, above all, a person who connects with the American people,” he said.
Annual inflation in the US slowed to 3% last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. That’s a sharp cooldown from June last year, when rising energy costs helped inflation rise to 9.1%.
The US economy added 209,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate was 3.6%, the BLS reported. The monthly job gain represents a significant slowdown from the breakneck pace of job growth seen during the recovery from the pandemic; however, the current labor market has surpassed that seen in and before February 2020.
“He just needs to make sure the American people know at the kitchen table what this means to them,” he said.
Pelosi separately called it “totally, totally ridiculous” that Alabama GOP Gov. For Ivey a new congressional map with only one majority-Black district, despite a court order calling for the lines to be redrawn to create two majority-Black districts or “something close to it.”
“There is something wrong with that picture, and it is bigger. You see racism happening in our country,” Pelosi said on Sunday.
He added: “What happened to the Republican Party that they brought this?”
This story has been updated with additional information.
