Nancy Pelosi praised as ‘the only serious national leader’ in America — and Trump is ‘jealous’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was praised on Thursday for her leadership as she directed the House of Representatives to begin drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

MSNBC's anchor Nicolle Wallace played a clip of the Speaker's press conference, where Pelosi strongly replied after a question on whether she hated Trump that was asked by James Rosen, who works for the right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting network.

“As a Catholic, I resent your using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me,” Pelosi replied. “I don’t hate anyone. I was raised in a way that is a heart full of love and always pray for the president, and I still pray for the president.”

“I pray for the president all the time,” she added, “so don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that.”

Wallace said the comments were, "laden though with the gravity of this moment."

For analysis, Wallace interviewed longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt.

"It was a really remarkable moment by Nancy Pelosi," Schmidt said. "And you look at the consternation of our national leadership, I think she's proven over this period of the Trump era she's literally the only serious national leader the country has with regard to -- and I disagree with her on many, many issues -- but her understanding that she's duty-bound here, constitutionally obligated to prosecute this matter because the president is so far above-the-line on this issue of high crimes and misdemeanors."

Politico's Jake Sherman said Trump, "really seemed fixated on Nancy Pelosi, who he's known for a long time."

"And who -- despite what you think of her policy -- she is one of the most effective congressional leaders we have seen, beyond doubt in at least the last decade," he explained. "Trump doesn't have that really. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is effective and helps Trump, but Nancy Pelosi keeps her people in line much better than any Republican leader that I've ever seen and Trump finds that, in my estimation based on what I've seen, he's almost jealous of that."

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