- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to rip up pages of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address once he finished delivering it Tuesday night.
- Before the speech, Trump appeared to reject a handshake from Pelosi before his speech as he handed copies to Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.
- The open contempt between the two comes nearly two months after Pelosi spearheaded Trump's impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
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At the end of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to rip up the pages of the speech and toss them aside as Trump left the lectern to applause from the rest of the chamber.
The stunning gesture of rebuke from Pelosi came after Trump appeared to snub the House Speaker when she attempted to shake his hand before his speech as he handed copies to Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.
The open displays of contempt between the two leaders came nearly two months after Pelosi spearheaded Trump's impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
I just asked Speaker Pelosi her reaction to the #SOTU speech.
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) February 5, 2020
“I tore it up,” she said.
Why?
“It was the courteous thing to do,” she said. https://t.co/b5rVil4ply
The moment before Pelosi tore up Trump's speech pic.twitter.com/jbx0C0o6cG
— Eliza Relman (@eliza_relman) February 5, 2020
After Pelosi opened an impeachment inquiry into Trump in late September the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on the two impeachment articles on December 18.
The two leaders, who have openly clashed in public multiple times since Pelosi assumed the speakership in January 2019, hadn't spoken since October 2019 before encountering each other in the House chamber for the State of the Union.
Throughout Trump's speech, Pelosi's official Twitter account posted numerous attacks and broadsides on the president.
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