House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday described her meeting with President Trump as a “meltdown” and said she was likely “excusing” herself from the room or telling Trump that “all roads lead to Putin” when an iconic photo of the gathering was snapped.
During the White House meeting Wednesday on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Syria, Pelosi said she told Trump that he needed to have a plan on how to fight ISIS after abandoning the Kurdish forces on the border.
Trump apparently told the room he pulled the U.S. troops out of Syria to fulfill his campaign promise to bring the troops home. Pelosi claims she retorted by questioning why U.S. troops remained in Saudi Arabia and Trump admitted it was because the country was paying the U.S. for them.
According to Pelosi, Trump was quickly hot under the collar over her questioning.
“I think I was excusing myself from the room,” she said of the photo. “I conveyed to the President in the meeting about the 354-60 vote in the House disapproving of his Syria actions, A. B, my concerns about all roads leading to Putin. … At that moment I was probably was saying ‘all roads lead to Putin.'”
Pelosi has reveled in the release of a photo that shows her literally standing up to Trump. The President posted the image on Twitter Wednesday evening, and Pelosi promptly made it her Twitter banner image.
Nervous Nancy's unhinged meltdown! pic.twitter.com/RDeUI7sfe7
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2019
Democratic leadership left the meeting at the White House visibly irate with President Trump’s “nasty” demeanor and disrespectful tone. Pelosi said after the meeting that she thinks Trump was too bothered by House Republicans opposition to his Syria-pullout to be productive in the meeting.
Pelosi explains she was "excusing" herself from the room in photo circulated by Trump pic.twitter.com/RqYAv4Ndgr
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 17, 2019
