Did Nancy Pelosi say President Donald Trump can't be in power because he's one of the "common people"? No, there is no evidence that the Democratic U.S. House speaker ever made such a dig at the Republican president.
The claim showed up in a meme (archived here) showing Pelosi above the alleged statement that was posted on Facebook on April 7, 2020. The text below the meme read:
This came out of her drunken mouth in conversation. Go ahead research it!!"
And the meme's text read:
Donald Trump is NOT a politician, properly vetted by the political arena and we do not accept common people in the reins of power. Common people are NOT allowed to be president and we DON'T care who this shutdown hurts, we will show the American people who runs this country.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
The House speaker, a frequent Trump critic, is also a regular target of the president, other conservatives and people who dislike her politics or her personality -- and many express themselves through memes that gain traction on social media. But a search of Twitter statements, public comments and news stories has shown no evidence to back up the claim she said Trump can't hold power because he's of the "common people."
This particular meme was shared by a Twitter user called "Missile Man" -- who wanted to make sure the president saw it -- along with Republican lawmakers, Fox News, and conservative news channel One America News Network (OANN), by including their handles in the tweet.
Meet the Narcissist - @SpeakerPelosi
-- Missile Man (@TENixon1) April 23, 2020
Common People Need to Take the Reins of Power More Often so these Politicians Know their Place.@realDonaldTrump @OANN @Q @AndWeKnow @HouseGOP @SenateGOP @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/wlqQPmyXU7
An earlier version of the same meme was shared March 1, 2020, by Twitter user BlueBlazez:
Donald Trump is NOT a politician, properly vetted by the political arena and we do not accept common people in the reins of power. Common people are NOT allowed to be president and we DON'T care who this shutdown hurts, we will show the American people who runs this country.' pic.twitter.com/rkzouuhinw
-- blueblazez (@blueblazez1) March 1, 2020
The only truth to this meme is the photo of Pelosi. The photo was from the January 2019 U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., where she was the keynote speaker. Below is the actual photo from The Associated Press.
And here is the video of Pelosi's speech from that conference, during which she does not make reference to Trump not being "properly vetted by the political arena," or that Trump is unfit for office because he is part of the "common people" -- an odd reference for a billionaire president.
Also, it's worth noting that while there is no public record of Pelosi making the comments, the user who posted the meme claims it came "out of her drunken mouth in conversation," before telling the user's audience to research it.
We have researched it and found it to be lacking in any evidence.
