After former President Donald Trump lied about Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi during the first presidential debate, Pelosi fact-checked him with a throwback reference to the moment she ripped up a copy of his State of the Union speech.
Trump defended his actions on January 6, 2021, the day a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol on the false premise the 2020 election was stolen. He claimed he had "offered 10,000 National Guard troops and they turned it down," falsely suggesting Pelosi, then House Speaker, had hindered his ability to stop the attack.
However, Pelosi does not direct the National Guard, which is usually activated and commanded by the governors of their respective states or territories.
Pelosi soon hit back at Trump with the following remarks on X, formerly Twitter, in which she mentioned ripping up Trump's speech.
"I tore up the former president’s State of the Union address because it was a manifesto of lies. Tonight he presented another pack of lies which along, with his candidacy, must be rejected. How dare he place the blame for January 6th on anyone but himself, the inciter of an insurrection?"
You can see her post below.
The moment Pelosi ripped up Trump's speech made headlines around the world and sparked countless memes.
On the night Trump delivered his 2020 State of the Union address—notable for his use of charged and inflammatory language, particularly his claim the nation is in the grips of "American carnage"— Pelosi extended her hand as he approached the podium. Trump snubbed her, turning away without accepting it.
Pelosi, seated along with Vice President Mike Pence behind Trump's podium in the House chamber, simply smiled and sat down. And after Trump concluded his 78-minute address, she dramatically tore up the paper copy of his speech, later telling reporters "It was the courteous thing to do, considering the alternative.”
Pelosi's sentiments were as relevant then as they are now—and people were quick to join her in criticizing Trump.
The animosity between Trump and Pelosi is well-documented, particularly during Trump’s presidency when she served as Speaker of the House.
His attack against her came after she said Trump and Republicans are engaging in "revisionist history" regarding the insurrection of January 6, 2021, the day a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the United States Capitol on the false premise the 2020 election had been stolen.
Trump previously accused her of "not properly securing" the Capitol on that day, falsely asserting that Pelosi could have or should have done more to prevent the attack. However, the responsibility for security lies not with Pelosi but with the Capitol Police and its board, which can request help from federal as well as Washington, D.C. authorities.
In a 2022 emailed statement to his supporters, Trump criticized the House Select Committee tasked with investigating the attack, demanding its members investigate Pelosi. At the same time, he insisted that the committee "wants nothing to do with that subject because they know it was the fault of Nancy Pelosi and, to a lesser extent, the Mayor of D.C."
While there were numerous warnings about the possibility of an attack, the Capitol Police planned only for a free speech demonstration and turned down offers of assistance from the Pentagon on two separate occasions.
Three days prior to the attack, the Pentagon had suggested deploying the National Guard. On the day of the attack, as the mob proceeded to attack the Capitol, the Pentagon suggested bringing in agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Capitol Police denied both offers of assistance, which ultimately handicapped the force's ability to contain the threat.
Aides and allies of the former president had pleaded with him to call for an end to the violence but Trump had initially resisted sending in the National Guard even as rioters grew progressively more violent.
In fact, Trump's refusal to respond, widely perceived as further evidence that he not only encouraged but ultimately endorsed the attack, forced Vice President Mike Pence to take the lead on the decision to mobilize the National Guard.
The insurrection's impact was felt even more when one of Trump's supporters, an election denier and QAnon adherent, attacked Pelosi's husband with a hammer. The suspect was later convicted of attempted murder and other charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison and 5 years of supervised release.
But Trump inflamed hostilities further by making light of the attack in remarks to his supporters, once mocking Pelosi's criticism of his immigration agenda by saying she's "against building a wall at our border even though she has a wall around her house, which obviously didn’t do a very good job.”