Pelosi Admits Anti-Trump Racism Resolution Was ‘Gentle’ Slap on the Wrist

The Democratic response to Donald Trump’s explicitly racist tweets about four Democratic members of Congress looks a lot like a guy slipping on the banana peel at the top of some stairs, then falling down the stairs and landing with both feet in separate buckets full of live eels, then crashing through a window into a display of mayonnaise jars. And then his pants fall down.

After being chastened yesterday by the House for calling Trump racist—which is apparently against the House rules because of a Thomas Jefferson book somehow, but also maybe not really—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave a press conference today about what happened.

Pelosi clarified that the House resolution was not intended to call Trump racist, but merely to call his tweets racist. (He is racist, and they should have defended their right to call him racist, whatever the dumbass rulebook says.) But perhaps more notable is that she said the resolution was purposefully watered down:

“It was for us to say—and by the way, in the most gentle way. You have no idea the provisions that some people wanted to have in that resolution. This was benign. It condemned the words of the president, not the president, but the words of the president, and in doing so it anchored itself in the words of Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan, [a] beautiful speech by Ronald Reagan which I reference all the time. And so you would have thought that that benign approach might have appealed to them.”

See what happens? You water down the resolution, make it as “gentle” and “benign” as possible, in case that appeals to Republicans, and how many do you get? Four. Four Republicans broke ranks to condemn Trump’s obviously racist tweets. All of this shit is pretty pointless anyway—a House resolution was never going to actually change anything. But if you are going to do a big symbolic condemnation, you might as well make it worth it by, for example, accurately saying that the president himself is racist.

I would also love to know what the provisions that were struck for not being gentle enough were. Perhaps a provision to additionally call Trump President Drumpf or The Cheeto Racisto. Just try to condemn me for that, Jefferson!!!