One moment… while I tear up your speech

Putting politics aside, I have a serious question – can you openly and blatantly disrespect your boss in the name of ‘honesty’?

My goal here is not to make this a political conversation – I think this act goes way beyond that. But before we go any further, let me state the background of this situation. 

The 2020 State of the Union address was held by President Trump on Tuesday, February 4th. This speech is given by the President every year during a joint session of the Congress. Both the House of Representatives and Senate come together, Republicans and Democrats, to join the leader of the country and hear what his goals and ideas are for the upcoming year. Overall it doesn’t matter what your opinions are or whose side you’re one – this event is about the country as a joint union. As of recent, there has been some tension around the presidency and Trump himself particularly with the impeachment trial that was in progress. Nonetheless, he is still the President of the United States and deserves respect where it’s due. 

During his speech, the two individuals in the presidential line of succession sat behind him – Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. They were on camera a majority of the time and are expected to exhibit a professional decorum. Speaker Pelosi was unhappy during the entire speech which was expected since she wants to impeach the President. Yet the bottom line is she is a professional politician in a high priority position that represents the whole country – a certain level of class es expected from her. Cameras caught Pelosi making tiny tears in her copies of the speech and preparing them on her table prior to her big “drop the mic” (Turley, 2020) moment (Chasmar, 2020). 

As soon as President Trump said his final words of the evening and concluded with “God bless America,” all you could see behind him was Nancy Pelosi tearing up his speech piece by piece. The cameras were focused on the President and those behind him so there was no missing her action or looking away – it was a shocking moment. Immediately social media and news posts were covered with the video of this and people began their comments. By the next morning, this news was everywhere. All news sources, no matter what party they are said to favor, commented on the “pettiness” (Today Show, 2020) and unprofessionalism of Pelosi’s behavior. This has nothing to do with politics!

Pelosi tried to defend her actions saying that they were “completely, entirely appropriate” (Wu, 2020) and continued to put down the President and his actions. An op-ed editorial on The Hill (2020) mentioned that she brought down the decorum of her branch of the government through these actions (Turley, 2020) and the moment will not be forgotten (yet likely not for good reasons). 

This situation was slightly taken advantage of since Pelosi cannot simply get fired from her position. Ultimately, can you blatantly disrespect the people who employ you if you don’t agree with them?

References: 

Chasmar, J. (2020). Nancy Pelosi pre-ripped pages during SOTU speech, Trump campaign says. Washington Times. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/6/nancy-pelosi-pre-ripped-pages-during-sotu-speech-t/

Lapin, T. (2020). Nancy Pelosi ‘pre-ripped’ pages of Trump’s SOTU speech, video shows. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2020/02/05/nancy-pelosi-pre-ripped-pages-of-trumps-sotu-speech-video-shows/

NBC News. (2020). Video shows Nancy Pelosi ripping Trump’s speech in preparation for tearing it in half | NBC News. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR5Z6bKRp9A

Today Show. (2020). Pelosi was ‘incredibly petty’ to rip up State Of The Union Speech, analyst says | TODAY. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNL76Qxy-1s

Turley, J. (2020). Nancy Pelosi should resign. The Hill. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/481598-nancy-pelosi-should-resign

Wu, N. (2020). Nancy Pelosi says tearing up Trump speech ‘entirely appropriate,’ says president seemed ‘sedated’ at SOTU. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/06/impeachment-nancy-pelosi-says-trump-remains-impeached-forever/4677577002/