NE NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON, FEB 6
One half of the chamber was on its feet, roaring its approval for Donald Trump. The other sat in sullen silence, broken by boos and occasional hisses, until their leader Nancy Pelosi ultimately ripped up the president’s speech.
Six weeks after he was impeached by the House of Representatives – and a day before his expected acquittal in the Senate – Trump’s annual State of the Union address was delivered in a triumphant vein, and could not have been more polarizing. Chants of “Four more years! Four more years!” greeted the president as he entered the chamber headed by his chief political nemesis in Washington: the Democratic Speaker of the House.
After a slow stroll down the centre aisle, accepting backslaps from Republican lawmakers, Trump stepped up to the rostrum and handed Pelosi a copy of his speech. The smiling speaker reached out for a handshake. Trump did not return the favour. And at the very end of his address, Pelosi – very deliberately – ripped up her copy of the president’s speech – in a pointed political statement delivered on live television. The bitterness between the 73-year-old president and the 79-year old speaker is nothing new.
But the latest flashpoint comes one day before the US Senate votes almost certainly to acquit the 45th president on the impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Throughout the impeachment crisis, Trump has repeatedly assailed Pelosi for her impeachment “hoax”, branding her “nervous Nancy” and “crazy Nancy” on Twitter. Courtesy: AFP
