Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi instructed them to follow the lead of late night comedians (in the mold of The Daily Show or The Nightly Show) to take down Donald Trump and the Republicans to the point that she offered to “encourage” them to broadcast such exposes as the general election intensifies.
Pelosi led into the suggestion for her like-minded media members by lamenting that she and her fellow House Democrats would not be able to showcase “a side-by-side and some of the egregious remarks” made by Donald Trump and allies due to House rules deeming such an exercise illegal.
She promised that they will run the series of clips later in “a political setting” that include Trump’s “birther remarks and their birther remarks, his anti-Muslim remarks and their building walls to Muslims, to immigrants, to the rest” as “[t]he list goes on.”
Before opening the floor to questions, Pelosi offered the brief lecture about her loyal subjects in the media should do their jobs concerning Trump coverage:
You know it. You could put this piece together yourselves. But to help you along and encourage that, we wanted to present some of the facts to you. Some of the night-time comedy shows have done a good job of doing the side-by-side. Hopefully the traditional press will do that as well.
The relevant portion of the transcript from the House Democratic leadership’s press conference from May 11 can be found below.
House Democratic leadership’s press conference
May 11, 2016HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI: Rules of the House prevent us from showing you a side-by-side and some of the egregious remarks made by our members, not in an official setting. But we will have that another day with some other members, including the leadership in another setting, a political setting, because they deem that to be political if we were to show Donald Trump's words here, but, if you saw a side-by-side, you would see his birther remarks and their birther remarks, his anti-Muslim remarks and their building walls to Muslims, to immigrants, to the rest. The list goes on. You know it. You could put this piece together yourselves. But to help you along and encourage that, we wanted to present some of the facts to you. Some of the night-time comedy shows have done a good job of doing the side-by-side. Hopefully the traditional press will do that as well.
