Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) trashed President Trump and his supporters in an interview released Friday by Bloomberg Television. Speaking with Francine Lacqua while on a trip to Venice, Italy, Pelosi called Trump a “cancerous…malignancy” and said of Trump’s supporters, “They don’t share our values in terms of respect for the dignity and worth of every person.”
Former Speaker of the House Pelosi was in Venice for the Diane Von Furstenberg awards ceremony that honors “women who have demonstrated leadership, strength, and courage in their commitment to women’s causes.”
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Excerpt from Vogue Magazine on Pelosi’s appearance at the DVF Awards:
In a sea of so often self-congratulatory awards ceremonies, Diane Von Furstenberg and The Diller – von Furstenberg Family Foundation’s DVF Awards have, for 14 years now, earmarked women making notable change. Taking place in the historic gardens and pillared buildings of Fondazione Cini on the Isola San Giorgio Maggiore, this year saw UN trailblazers, AI discrimination experts, and ecological activists receive accolades from the likes of Rita Ora and Dame Emma Thompson.
Among those awarded was Amal Clooney, who arrived at the event arm-in-arm with her husband– a rare spot of an off-duty actor amid the SAG-AFTRA strike. Together, before the event formally kicked off, the pair milled around the garden with members of the von Furstenberg family who came in support of the ceremony. Ora, arriving in a sheer black gown, caught up with the honoree she was presenting an award to later, the storyteller and gender advocate Lilly Singh.
Emma Thompson, speaking in fluent Italian to journalists, spoke of her love of the city. “I want to learn how to row!” she said, laughing, in reference to the gondolas that rode through choppy waters of the city. She was wearing a dress; a rarity for the pant-suit-favoring actor. Von Furstenberg had convinced her to do so.
After an acapella performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Jewel, the ceremony opened with an address from speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi, who said in her speech that “Venice was the woman at the end of the rainbow.” Shortly after, Singh collected her award from an emotional Ora, speaking about the cumulative impact of shame on women.
More from the Pelosi interview on Trump:
Pelosi: “…He was clever: undermine the press, undermine the rule of law, I’m above the law. So, seeing the length to which he will go of course is more frightening. He’s a threat to our democracy, but we intend to win.”
Lacqua: “He’s so popular.”
Pelosi: “Well, he’s popular among his his group.”
Lacqua: “Are you surprised at how popular he is with?”
Pelosi: “Well, I’m never surprised it’s not a word I use. (Crosstalk.) It’s interesting to see how there’s a certain element of the population who will just go for him. They’re people we would probably never get. They don’t share our values in terms of respect for the dignity and worth of every person and the rest. But there are some who are supporting him who are just afraid. They don’t see a place for their families in the future, they’re concerned about globalization, they’re concerned about immigration, they’re concerned about innovation, they’re concerned about diversity, women, minorities, lgbtq, other people coming into the leadership arena and they, um, and, and that’s to be respected. So I respect all of the people of America. And I when people ask me, “Are you afraid of what might happen?”, I say, “no”, because of the goodness of the American people, the strength of our democracy. We will prevail and my motto is ‘the flag is still there’ as we say in our national anthem.”
Lacqua: “Is there a Republican president and a candidate that you could live with?”
Pelosi: “I’m not into Republicans, I’m into the Democrats and hopefully the Republican Party can find a candidate that America could live with. I say to the Republicans all the time, “Take back your party.” The Republican party is a great party. You’ve done great things for our country. You’re not you’re not a cult to a thug, you’re a great, grand old party and recapture that because the public, America needs a strong Republican party, a strong Democratic party too, but a strong Republican party. So hopefully, uh, as soon as we get through this, um, shall we say cancerous situation that we’re in, uh, the malignancy of, of Trump, they will emerge in a strong way with the leadership that I know is there in the Republican party–not necessarily in the Congress but in the country.”
Transcribed by TGP.