Nancy Pelosi campaign sells 'Don't Mess with Nancy' sweatshirts after her clapback at reporter goes viral
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently got into a heated exchange with a reporter that was pretty much cut for virality. Now, Pelosi's campaign has turned her snappy response to her advantage.
Pelosi for Congress, her campaign website, is now selling crewneck sweatshirts with the phrase "Don't Mess with Nancy"—that she taunted the reporter with after he asked her if she "hated" the president. Pelosi has responded to the reporter saying how much her she "resents" the usage of the word "hate". She then told the reporter, "Don't mess with me with words like that."
"As a Catholic, I resent your using the word 'hate' in a sentence that addresses me. I don't hate anyone," Pelosi told Sinclair reporter James Rosen.
"I was raised in a way that is a heart full of love and always pray for the president. And I still pray for the president. And I pray for the president all the time, so don't mess with me when it comes to words like that."
Incidentally enough, this isn't the first time Pelosi has told off reporters, specifically Rosen. In November, she called him "Mr. Republican talking points" after he posed a question on Trump getting the right to confront his accuser in the Ukraine controversy.
As for the recent jab, Rosen has since denied accusing Pelosi of hating Donald Trump.
Also, this isn't the first time Pelosi has very skillfully turned an ugly incident to her advantage.
In October, when Trump tweeted a photo of her to prove that she had an "unhinged meltdown" during a meeting, she had ironically used the photo as her own cover picture on her Twitter account.
While not everybody was a fan of her viral moment, Trump made his displeasure known by tweeting that Pelosi looked like she "just had a nervous fit."
In response to Pelosi's statement about "praying for the president", Trump retorted, tweeting: "She says she 'prays for the President.' I don’t believe her, not even close. Help the homeless in your district, Nancy."
This testy exchange has however garnered varied responses from experts on social media. "Rosen asked best Q which exposed her," Fox News host Laura Ingraham wrote on Twitter. "This IS based on hate. Everyone knows it. Pelosi's answer was basically 'we don’t hate anyone,' but then called Trump 'a coward.'"
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's host went the opposite way, tweeting a video arguing that Trump should start calling Nancy "boss".