Speaker Nancy Pelosi closed out the week by advising Democrats to “throw a punch — for the children” come election season.
The California Democrat, speaking at a DNC summer meeting in San Francisco, told her colleagues to get fighting mad for the 2020 presidential contest with President Trump and the Republican Party.
“For [Republicans] it’s about money,” she said in footage published by ABC News. “They’ll put up any amount of money to protect their investments of degrading the environment and the rest. Guns and all that. … So you have to be ready to take a punch, and therefore you have to be ready to throw a punch — for the children.”
The comment received a smattering of applause.
Critics on Twitter noted the mixed messages sent by politicians who call for tempered political rhetoric one day while offering fistfight metaphors the next.
Some responses include:
- “Aren’t these the people who said a target on an electoral map was directly responsible for a shooting?”
- “Throwing punches for children.’ — Dem slogan, 2020.”
- “Inciting violence? People will take this literally. Not a good look in these dangerous times.”
- “More violent rhetoric from the left.”
- “Every draconian thing is history as been proceeded by ’it’s for the children.’”
“So are we ready to win have we decided that we are going to debate our differences, unified behind our candidates?” the Democrat continued. “Are we going to strengthen our majority in the house? To win the United States Senate for the American people?”
Mrs. Pelosi also used the “throw a punch for the children” line in June while speaking to an audience in Connecticut.
At DNC summer meeting, Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicts 2020 will be a “tough election.”
— ABC News (@ABC) August 23, 2019
“You have to be ready to take a punch,” she says. “And therefore you have to be ready to throw a punch—for the children.” https://t.co/JsAo4rT8TM pic.twitter.com/kFlfDBNIsq
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.