As the Democrats hope to second-guess their way to victory over President Trump this November, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doing her bit. According to her, Trump has done everything wrong. If only she and her colleagues were at the controls…
When Pelosi appeared yesterday on FOX News Sunday — excerpt below, entire segment here — Chris Wallace played the February 24 news clip of Pelosi inviting tourists to come on down to Chinatown. In the February 24 clip Pelosi assured viewers: “Everything is fine here because precautions have been taken.”
Incidentally, I can’t find any evidence that Pelosi tweeted out the local news clip out on her own Twitter feed or that she subsequently deleted such a tweet. Indeed, at her own Newsroom site, one can still find the text of Pelosi’s February 24 remarks to the press at the Dim Sum Corner Restaurant following her meeting with local business owners in Chinatown.
In her prepared remarks on February 24 Pelosi reiterated the message in the news clip: “I’m here today…to say to everyone: we should come to Chinatown. Precautions have been taken by our city. We know that there is concern surrounding tourism, traveling all throughout the world, but we think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come. It’s lovely here. The food is delicious, the shops are prospering, the parade was great. Walking tours continue. Please come and visit and enjoy Chinatown.”
Pelosi was asked following her prepared remarks: “[H]ow irrational is it that people are staying away from Asian-owned business – not only here, but all over the U.S.?” Pelosi generalized the assurance that all was well despite the spreading epidemic:
Well, that’s one of the reasons we are here today. It doesn’t make any sense, but it’s not just Asian-owned now. You see in Italy where the shows – the fashion shows and all of that were done without an audience because people – they just didn’t – because people were not coming. So, again, this fear is – I think – unwarranted in light of the precautions that are being taken here in the United States. I can’t speak for any other country.
And further: “So, that’s why we want people to come to Chinatown. Don’t be afraid. Enjoy it all. It’s beautiful and there are some good bargains here now, so it’s a good time to come.”
Asked whether “racism was keeping people out of Chinatown,” Pelosi responded:
Well, I can’t – I don’t know that. I wasn’t in that conversation. But, I do think that because it started in China, there’s a concern that are the – is the Chinese government doing what it needed to do early enough, and now as we go forward. But that should not be carried over to Chinatown and San Francisco. I hope that it’s not that.
But, all I can say is that I’m here. We feel safe and sound, so many of us, coming here to not only say that it’s safe, but to say thank you for being Chinatown. Thank you.
Wallace asked her yesterday, “If the president underplayed the threat in the early days, Speaker Pelosi, didn’t you as well?”
Pelosi responded: “What we were trying to do is end the discrimination, the stigma that was going out against the Asian-American community. And in fact, if you will look, the record will show that our Chinatown has been a model of containing and preventing the virus.”
She added that her “confidence” in Chinatown residents prompted her trip, saying it was intended to “offset some of the things that the president and others were saying about Asian Americans and making them a target….I was saying that you should not discriminate against Chinese Americans as some in our administration were doing by labeling the flu.”
Everything that Pelosi said to Wallace was utterly false. What was Trump or anyone else in the administration saying about Asian-Americans except what great Americans they are? What a disgusting crock.
Fox News' Chris Wallace calls out Nancy Pelosi for promoting tourism during the coronavirus pandemic pic.twitter.com/tkhte8qRYD
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 19, 2020
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