Did Nancy Pelosi promise to resign if Trump is re-elected? No, that's not true: the original story was a work of satire by a publisher who works to fool conservatives into believing his stories, but it has been stolen from the properly labeled website and republished as legitimate news without a disclaimer identifying it as satire.
The story originated from an article (archived here) where it was published by bustatroll.org on April 10, 2020 under the title "Pelosi Promises to Resign if Trump is Re-Elected." The article by 'Harry Helmet' is categorized in the bustatroll.org article archive as, "Pelosi Satire with Chile Sauce and Liquid Cheese." It opened:
Nancy Pelosi knows she is doomed. Between the multiple investigations against her, her falling poll numbers, and the inevitability of Trump winning another four years, the walls are closing in. She knows her only choice is to run while she still can.
In a speech today, Pelosi said the following:
"I am here today to make an important announcement. If Donald Trump wins in November, I will immediately resign my position as Speaker of the House and as Congresswoman. I will no longer be an effective leader if Trump is there to block my agenda. The only choice I have is to step aside.
I have done all I can to block his work, but my constituents are starting to turn on me and back Trump. I am no longer what the people want. They want Trump, and if they chose him in November, I will step aside and support the will of the people."
The site is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this he has recently rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry extremely visible disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
This article has been copied by many "real" fake news sites who have omitted the satire disclaimer and any other hints the story is fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up.
Here is a video of Blair explaining how his process works:
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes bustatroll.org as:
One in a network of sites that publish false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news, run by hoax perpetrator Christopher Blair.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
