Pro-life Trump voters sold 'the whole democracy down the river,' Nancy Pelosi says
Archbishop says speaker's remarks are a 'direct contradiction' to Catholic teaching
People who opposed the impeachment of President Donald Trump because of their pro-life beliefs sold American democracy “down the river,” House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi implied on a recent podcast with Hillary Clinton.
Pelosi, 80, was a guest on an episode of the former first lady’s iHeartRadio podcast “You and Me Both” that aired Monday. The two Democrats discussed the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and Trump’s degree of responsibility for the violent riot.
The discussion touched on new polling data from The Washington Post and ABC News that indicates that 70% of Americans say Trump was responsible for the riot. Pelosi also mentioned how other polling data shows that over 40% of Americans said they didn’t support removing Trump from office.
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“Why? One issue: abortion,” she said. “And that is enough. When you take the greed of those who want their tax cut — that's probably a small number, but nonetheless a number — and then you take the abortion issue. And many of these people are very good people; that's just their point of view. But they were willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”
Pelosi remarked that the fascination with the abortion issue by some religious Americans is one “element” she has been “talking about for a long time that gives me grief as a Catholic.”
“I think that Donald Trump is president because of the issue of a woman’s right to choose,” she said.
“When he signed that paper saying, ‘These are the judges that I will appoint,’ that was the dog whistle to the evangelicals, to the Catholics and all the rest. A woman will not have the right to choose [abortion].”
Catholic church teaching forbids both contraception and abortion.
It’s greedy to want lower taxes, and people who don’t want women to abort their unborn babies believe rights are a zero-sum game, she complained.
“People need to see a place for themselves in the future,” the speaker told Clinton. “Many of these people don't see that place. [President Joe Biden] should show them that there is a place for them — that it's not a zero-sum game. Women and minorities and LGBTQ people can thrive, not at their expense. When we're addressing the climate crisis, it isn't at the expense of their job.”
Pelosi has consistently voted for taxpayer-funded abortion, against restrictions to abortion based on the ability of unborn babies to feel pain and for partial-birth abortion to remain legal.
If people want to stop the abortion of unborn babies they should appreciate contraception, Pelosi argued.
“And again, there's a great deal of hypocrisy here, because many of these people, of course, are not having 13 children,” Pelosi said. “I said to my colleagues, when you have five children in six years, you come around and talk to me as a Catholic.”
Clinton laughed.
“Let's have a true economic safety net. Let's have a true jobs program, including an infrastructure program, which I know is at the heart of your commitment to the future,” Clinton said. “Let's have a healthcare system that covers everyone with quality, affordable healthcare. And then let's talk. You know, I think first things first.”
Pelosi's remarks drew the ire of Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, who issued a statement Thursday saying that Pelosi does not speak for the Catholic Church.
"And on the question of the equal dignity of human life in the womb, she also speaks in direct contradiction to a fundamental human right that Catholic teaching has consistently championed for 2,000 years," Cordileone stated. "Christians have always understood that the commandment, ‘Thou shall not kill,’ applies to all life, including life in the womb."
On the podcast, which aired two days before Trump left office, Pelosi said she wanted Trump out of office as quickly as possible because he might work to inconvenience the new Biden administration or do something worse.
Pelosi spoke with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about precautions preventing Trump from single-handedly starting a war or launching nuclear weapons.
“Well, here's a man who is not allowed to be on Twitter, and yet he has access to the nuclear code. Really?” she asked Clinton.
Pelosi and Clinton concluded the podcast by talking about children and the future.
“I've said about you, nobody's done more for ‘our children, our children, our children’ than Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton,” said Pelosi. “I always say to the women, ‘When you get into the arena, you have to be ready to take a punch. But you also have to be ready to throw a punch — for the children.”
