House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s net worth was off limits Tuesday during a town hall meeting in which she cited Martin Luther King Jr. to condemn “inordinate wealth.”
The California Democrat was in Phoenix as part of a 100-city tour against tax reform signed by President Trump, but things briefly came to a halt when she spoke of God’s intentions for personal wealth. Mrs. Pelosi decried tax cuts touted by Mr. Trump, along with his proposed budget, when an outburst came from the crowd.
“This about the United States of America, about our children’s future,” the lawmaker said. “And again, it can’t possibly be a statement of value for us to talk about, as Martin Luther King said, God really didn’t intend … never really intended one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth while others live in abject, deadening poverty.”
The audience applauded before someone from the Grand Canyon State repeatedly asked, “How much are you worth, Nancy?”
“No, we’re not talking about that,” the Democrat replied. “I’m a mother of five, I can speak louder than anybody.”
Republicans pounced on the exchange by posting it to their “GOP War Room” YouTube channel.
The Washington Free Beacon noted in January that Mrs. Pelosi’s 2016 financial-disclosure statement places her “in the top one-tenth of the 1 percent of Americans.”
“Pelosi’s annual property tax bill alone on three luxury homes last year— $137,000 — is more than twice the 2016 U.S. median household income of $59,039, which the U.S. Census reported last fall,” the website reported Jan. 25.
The lawmaker’s finances have been under increased scrutiny in recent weeks due to her decision to frame $1,000 cash bonuses given out by businesses as “crumbs.”
“The bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic,” she told reporters Jan. 11. “It’s so pathetic.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.