‘Why Would You Even Cover That?’

Nancy Pelosi was incredulous at Jake Tapper sharing a clip of Donald Trump questioning Kamala Harris’ cognitive health during a Tuesday interview on CNN’s “The Lead,” responding by asking him, “Why would you even cover that?”

Tapper noted that Democratic voters have asked, “The media made such a big deal out of Joe Biden’s alleged cognitive problems, why don’t they talk about Donald Trump’s cognitive problems?”

He shared a clip of the Republican candidate on Tuesday attempting to turn the argument against his current Democratic rival, telling his audience, “They laugh at us, all over the world they’re laughing at us. And you know what they’re really laughing at? Kamala. Because they can’t believe that she’s going to be president. They can’t believe.”

Trump underlined, “You talk about cognitive problems? She’s got bigger cognitive problems than he has, in my opinion.”

Asked by Tapper for her thoughts, Pelosi responded, “Why would you even cover that? This is a person who’s not on the level. He is their nominee for president, he is incompetent. Let’s not even talk about the silliness of it all, and the weirdness of it all, and the assault on women that it is. We’re not going to talk issues — incompetent.”

Pelosi went on to pivot to an attack on Trump for tax cuts to the wealthy and adding $2 trillion to the national debt, as well as attacking his record on job creation.

Tapper pushed back, attributing Trump’s poor record on jobs to the effects of the Covid pandemic, but Pelosi disagreed and added, “It’s not because of Covid. We put $3 trillion into the economy when he was president, working with the Congress, working together.”

“What did he do with Covid? Denial, and delay. Responsible for thousand, and thousands, and thousands of people dying,” Pelosi added. “So if you’re going to forgive his job record because of Covid, make sure you attribute many of those deaths to him.”

Tapper smirked at Pelosi’s response, defending himself by adding, “Not forgiving anything, just noting the context.”

Pelosi again underlined that she felt Trump was “incompetent,” adding to forget about other adjectives like “silly,” “crazy” or “crooked.” The former speaker seemed to take issue with some of the messaging around Trump and Vance being “weird” and looked to drive her message about Trump’s ability to do the job of president.

Tapper followed by responding to the question of why they were covering this issue, telling Pelosi, “I run that clip because that’s the Republican presidential nominee and I thought you might have a reaction to it.”

The CNN anchor followed by asking about House Speaker Mike Johnson saying, “If we have a free, fair and safe election, we’re going to follow the Constitution.” Tapper pointed out the Republican leader’s seeming caveat on whether he would certify this November’s presidential election.

While Pelosi wouldn’t concede that Johnson might still be speaker come January when the certification is held, she noted that there would be greater security this time than during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection following the election of President Biden and the defeat of former President Trump.

“Nobody could ever foresee that the president of the United States, disrespecting the office that he held, would incite an insurrection in the Capitol,” Pelosi added. “Assaulting our Capitol, our symbol of democracy to the world. Assaulting our Constitution, which called for the peaceful transfer of power. And assaulting the Congress of the United States violently, going after me, with a bullet [to put] in my head and a noose for his own vice president, who would not follow his instruction to ignore the Constitution and not honor his oath to protect and defend the Constitution.”

Pelosi summarized the stakes of the election by citing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“The National Anthem says, ‘Proof through the night that our flag is still there,’” the former House speaker said. “You’ve heard me say that again and again. And we, this is our night. We have to prove through the night that our flag is still there.”

You can watch the full interview with Nancy Pelosi by Jake Tapper on “The Lead” at this link, during which the pair talked extensively about Harris’ approach to giving interviews, her economic policies and more.