To say that American politics is a screaming bloody circus right now is a staggering understatement. While the state of Iowa rips itself in twain because Pete Buttigieg went full rat mode and an app designed to literally count numbers couldn’t even do that, President Donald Trump was back in Washington giving the annual State of the Union address; an address that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi quite literally ripped apart immediately after it was over.
Following the conclusion of the address – one delivered less like a Presidential decree and more like an unrestricted campaign rally – Pelosi calmly rose to her feet, produced the copy of the address provided to her, and ripped it clean in half while Trump, blissfully unaware, stood mere inches in front of her.
.@SpeakerPelosi tears up of State of the Union speech.#SOTU #SOTU2020 pic.twitter.com/sIpi4G7KsL
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 5, 2020
No sarcastic applause, no beating around the bush, just straight up shredding it like a bored Dad’s 18-hour smoked pork shoulder.
It’s a fairly tiny gesture almost certainly designed to be replayed a billion times on social media. But hey, she ripped the piss outta that dang speech! Whoosh, straight down the middle baby! Hell yeah!
Following the gesture, which is already giving conservative US politicians and media a case of the rickets, Pelosi went on to explain herself, stating that ripping the speech was “the courteous thing to do considering the alternative.”
Q: Why did you tear up the speech?
PELOSI: “Because it was the courteous thing to do.”
PELOSI: “It was the courteous thing to do considering the alternative.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) February 5, 2020
What was the alternative, Nancy? Folding it up into a paper plane and firing it out the window? Eating it, slowly, page by page? Rolling it up into a big wet ball and shoving it right up the President’s ass?
The mind boggles.
