Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, won’t attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, her spokesperson confirmed to Day by day Kos.
Pelosi is the second big-name Democrat to announce that they gained’t attend. Earlier this week, former first woman Michelle Obama mentioned she additionally plans to skip the occasion, which can happen on Monday. Different Democratic lawmakers who will play hooky that day embrace Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Information of Pelosi’s pending absence was first reported by ABC Information.
Pelosi’s spokesperson didn’t elaborate on why she gained’t make the pilgrimage to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., this go-around. Her absence could also be as a result of Pelosi remains to be recovering from hip surgical procedure she underwent in Germany following a fall in December. It’s additionally doable that, like most Democrats, she simply hates Trump.
Nobody would blame her if that have been the case. The 2 have lengthy had a tumultuous skilled relationship. Since Trump’s first administration, their disdain for each other has seemingly solely elevated. Pelosi famously spent the ultimate days of Trump’s first time period making an attempt to oust him from the Oval Workplace after the Jan. 6, 2021, rebel on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump, for his half, spent a lot of his first time period avoiding Pelosi, even because the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged states and lawmakers tried to work collectively to ship assist.
Since then, Trump has known as Pelosi “crazy,” “crooked,” “evil,” and “sick,” amongst different abhorrent issues. In November, he practically known as her a bitch throughout a marketing campaign rally, although he stopped himself from saying the phrase outright.
“She’s a bad person, evil. She’s an evil, sick, crazy—” Trump mentioned at a rally in Michigan amid his 2024 marketing campaign, sounding out the letter “B” however stopping simply in need of uttering the obscenity. “It starts with a ‘B,’ but I won’t say it. I wanna say it.”
Pelosi’s inauguration absence marks a break in custom for the octogenarian. Along with attending Trump’s first inauguration, in 2017, ABC Information stories that Pelosi has gone to 11 presidential inaugural occasions.
Senior leaders of each events usually attend presidential inaugurations, whatever the incoming president’s celebration. However Trump has no room to complain about Pelosi’s absence: He famously skipped President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
In actuality, Trump most likely gained’t discover that Pelosi’s gone. He’ll be too busy making an attempt to impress his trio of tech-bro sugar daddies—Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—who’ve been rewarded with plum seats on the inauguration. (All three males additionally donated a minimum of $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.)
In the meantime, whereas they are going to attend Monday’s inauguration, former presidents George W. Bush, Invoice Clinton, and Barack Obama will skip Trump’s inaugural luncheon. In keeping with NBC Information, each Obama and Clinton have been invited however declined. Bush’s workplace instructed the outlet that he by no means obtained an invitation.
