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President Trump – No Monopoly on Violating Political Norms

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Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi speaks at the dedication of the Dr. Norman Borlaug statue in the National Statuary Hall at the U. S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Mar. 25, 2014. USDA photo by Lance Cheung.

Not for a moment should anyone think that President Trump has a monopoly on violating political norms, reports the WSJ. On Tuesday of this week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi violated her own House rules on appropriate speech.

Ms. Pelosi, looking for a House resolution to denounce Mr. Trump on his “racist” tweets, offered, “Every single member of this institution, Democratic and Republican, should join us in condemning the President’s racist tweets. To do anything less would be a shocking rejection of our values and a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the American people.”

Pelosi’s Words “Out of Order”

Speaking of values, House rules say that Members may not call a President racist. Rep. Doug Collins (R., Ga.) rose to ask the Speaker to “rephrase” her comments. She refused, saying the House parliamentarian had approved them in advance. A flurry of conversation followed, with a Democrat even abandoning the chair presiding over the House lest he have to strike the Speaker’s words from the record. No one can remember that ever happening.

Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer eventually took the chair to say the Speaker’s words were “out of order.” But the Democratic majority then voted 232-190 not to strike Mrs. Pelosi’s words from the record, and it voted again by a similar margin to override House rules so she wouldn’t be banned from speaking on the House floor for the rest of the day as she should have been when a Member’s words are “taken down.”

In Madam Speaker’s zeal to play to the media chorus, the WSJ notes, Ms. Pelosi violated her own House rules on appropriate speech.

But rather than apologize, she and her party override the rules to spare her embarrassment. All of which proves again that Donald Trump, for all of his excesses, has no monopoly on violating political norms.

Read more here.

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Debbie Young

Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.