Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says former President Donald Trump looked like a “sad puppy” following his arraignment on charges he led a conspiracy against the American people following his 2020 election loss.
Mrs. Pelosi, a California Democrat who sparred with Mr. Trump during his presidency, said she “wasn’t in the courtroom, of course.”
“But when I saw his coming out of his car and this or that, I saw a scared puppy,” Mrs. Pelosi said Friday on MSNBC. “He looked very, very, very concerned about [his] fate.”
She said the former president lacked his usual “bravado” after pleading not guilty to four criminal counts in a federal courthouse that is within sight of the Capitol that was stormed by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021.
“He knows. He knows the truth that he lost the election and now he’s got to face the music,” she said.
Mrs. Pelosi picked the members of the House select committee on Jan. 6, which investigated Mr. Trump’s actions following the 2020 election and the run-up to the Capitol attack. The indictment secured by special counsel Jack Smith covers much of the same ground but with the heft of federal charges that could carry prison time.
Mrs. Pelosi said she is “very proud of the Jan. 6 committee which took us, laid the foundation, created a path for us to get to this place to seek the truth.”
Mr. Trump says the charges are groundless and the prosecution will only make him stronger in the 2024 GOP primary. He leads the Republican field by a wide margin in early polling.
At the same time, he says the Biden administration is trying to weaken him ahead of a general election rematch against the Democratic incumbent.
“Every one of these many Fake Charges filed against me by the Corrupt Biden DOJ could have been filed 2.5 years ago, but they waited and waited until I became dominant in the Polls, and then they filed them all, including locals, right in the middle of my Campaign,” Mr. Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social. “They want anybody but ‘TRUMP.’ Not fair and perhaps, not legal. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.