President Joe Biden’s apparent cognitive decline has been widely discussed, but another leader in the Democratic Party is signaling she might be facing similar struggles.
During a Sunday interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked whether Democratic leaders should have done more to prevent a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
For decades, Bash said, conservatives have been vocal about their desire to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case legalizing abortion, and many on the left felt Pelosi and her party “should have seen this coming.”
The 82-year-old speaker responded to this criticism by stammering and making random consonant sounds before launching into a personal attack on former President Donald Trump.
“I mean, the point is — who would have ever suspected that a creature like Donald Trump would become president of the United States, waving a list of judges that he would appoint, therefore getting the support of the far right and — ah — appointing those anti — dis — freedom judges to the court,” Pelosi said with difficulty.
In all honesty, this criticism is not really a fair one to the Democrats. The suggestion that they should have done something to prevent conservative justices from joining the court is ironic given how hard they tried to sink Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.
The truth is that Democrats did everything they could to prevent Roe v. Wade from being overturned, but the leaked draft opinion suggests they have failed. The 1973 decision was horribly written and deeply flawed, and common sense will finally win out if it is indeed overturned.
Of course, Pelosi could not admit any of these facts, because to do so would be detrimental to her party. Instead of coming up with any coherent response, she bumbled through an attempt to employ the Democrats’ favorite tactic: bashing Trump and blaming him for everything.
Is Pelosi mentally fit for office?
Pelosi has appeared to suffer confusion on live television before. In fact, while she was discussing the Supreme Court with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos in September 2020, she seemed to completely shut down.
The interview occurred soon after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, when the California Democrat was discussing the possibility of stopping Trump’s nomination to replace her.
“Well, we have our options,” Pelosi said. “We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now, but the fact is we have a big challenge in our country.”
Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi to clarify she was “not taking any arrows out of your quiver,” and it was at that point that Pelosi seemed to lose it.
“Good morning,” Pelosi said. “Sunday morning.
“We have a responsibility, we take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
“We have a responsibility to meet the needs of the American people. That is, when we weigh the equities, protecting our Democracy requires us to use every arrow in our quiver.”
While Pelosi eventually got back around to the “arrows” question, her initial response was completely unrelated to the question. She looked and sounded like a confused woman who forgot where she was.
Democrats insist on having leaders who routinely display characteristics of dementia, and that might be a contributing factor in the expected red wave in November’s midterm elections.
