Pelosi mocked as video shows her struggling to stand up after kneeling for 8 minutes in solidarity with BLM
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a knee along with her fellow Democratic colleagues at Capitol’s Emancipation Hall to protest police brutality in the country on Monday, June 8 but struggled to get back up. The 80-year-old along with other members knelt for 8 minutes and 46 seconds which is the same amount of time that now-former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck while arresting him.
Floyd said he couldn't breathe but Chauvin did not budge, eventually killing Floyd. On Monday, Pelosi took to a knee and given that she is 80, it took her a bit of help to get back on her feet. After she was helped up, an out-of-breath Pelosi said, "You see how long it is to have his knee on his neck," according to a PJ Media report. She laughed off her struggle and said that her heels had been the problem. A video of the incident was shared on Twitter where social media users reminded everyone she was 80 but were amused.
One user shared, "Poor Nancy. She may have the face of a 68-year-old, but she still has the knees of an 80-year-old." A second user wrote in, "When I saw this my first thought was she’s almost 80 (with a lot of plastic surgery) how is she going to get up? She needed one of those buttons you wear around your neck 'help me I’ve fallen & I can’t get up'."
Another user shared, "I'm 54, Nancy Pelosi is 80. I played HORSE with my teenage son the other evening and couldn't get off the floor without assistance... I think I will cut her some slack on this, but I get the optics." One more added, "Considering her age, she would need a hand getting up from a kneeling position. A person's knees don't work as well as they get older. Glad someone was able to assist her and the others that needed it."
Pelosi was seen wearing an African kente cloth on top of a coral suit. She also sported a pair of moderate heels. Kente cloth is typically worn by African men and the colors on the kente have different meanings. For example, the color red signifies violence and anger, blue means love, green represents growth and energy, yellow means wealth, white means victory, grey means shame and black signifies death.
We had earlier reported that after taking to the podium, Pelosi had declared Floyd a "martyr". "The martyrdom of George Floyd gave American experience a moment of national anguish as we grieve for the black Americans killed by police brutality," she said. "Today this movement of national anguish is being transformed into a movement of national action as Americans from across the country peacefully protest to demand an end to injustice... The martyrdom of George Floyd has made a change in the world," she added.