The bitter feud between President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to escalate, with new nicknames, new accusations and counter-accusations, and, now, a new video posted by the president that Pelosi’s team decried as “doctored” but that NBC News notes appears to simply be a montage of the speaker’s stammering.
Amid Pelosi’s accusations that Trump threw a “temper tantrum” in a closed-door meeting with Democrats and is engaged in a “cover-up,” Trump tweeted a video aired on Fox Business’ “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that is a 30-second montage of Pelosi stammering repeatedly over the course of a 20-minute news conference Thursday.
“PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE,” Trump captioned the video.
“PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE” pic.twitter.com/1OyCyqRTuk
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
In response, Pelosi’s Chief of Staff Drew Hammill accused the president of posting a “doctored video.” “Hours before the posting of this doctored video, @washingtonpost reports that doctored Pelosi videos are multiplying across social media,” he wrote, referencing a Post report on a different video circulating on social media.
Hours before the posting of this doctored video, @washingtonpost reports that doctored Pelosi videos are multiplying across social media https://t.co/byZueVF6P2 https://t.co/8qbOu3U9e9
— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) May 24, 2019
Pelosi’s daughter Christine Pelosi also declared the video a “fake.” “Fake video altered for speed- just like you did to Acosta,” she wrote, a reference to the infamous Acosta video, which Trump critics said was deliberately “doctored,” an accusation further analysis debunked. “Dig deeper — you can give the presidency more respect than this.”
Fake video altered for speed- just like you did to Acosta.
Dig deeper – you can give the presidency more respect than this. #BeBest, @potus! https://t.co/xR5Am1JgPE
— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) May 24, 2019
But as NBC explains, Team Pelosi’s “doctored” and “fake” descriptions appear to be wrong. While a digitial forensics expert did determine that a different video starring Pelosi was altered to make it appear that she was slurring her words, the video posted by Trump does not appear to have been “altered for speed,” as the speaker’s daughter alleged.
“Hany Farid, a computer-science professor and digital-forensics expert at University of California, Berkeley, told The Post that there was no doubt that video had been altered,” NBC News reports. “But he said he believed the video Trump tweeted Thursday had not been slowed down.”
“Unlike the video referred to in The Washington Post article, I don’t believe that this video montage was slowed down. This montage, however, is highly deceptive as it compiles in rapid succession relatively small verbal stumbles in an attempt to portray Speaker Pelosi as stumbling through her press conference,” Farid told the outlet.
As The Daily Wire noted Thursday, the Trump and Pelosi feud has grown more caustic —and personal — this week, with Trump describing the Democratic leader as a “mess” and having “lost it” and Pelosi mocking his “extremely stable genius” description of himself and condemning him for not acting “presidential.”
When the “extremely stable genius” starts acting more presidential, I’ll be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues. https://t.co/tfWVkj9CLT
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 23, 2019
Trump also coined a new nickname for Pelosi this week. “The president, who has largely avoided direct personal attacks on the speaker, finally gave her a derogatory nickname — calling her ‘Crazy Nancy,’ after Ms. Pelosi had suggested Mr. Trump’s behavior was so erratic it required an ‘intervention’ from his family and staff,” The New York Times reported Thursday.
Despite her suggestion that Trump is unfit for office, Speaker Pelosi has been working behind closed doors to hold her colleagues back from pushing forward on impeachment, reportedly warning them that Trump “wants to be impeached” so he can be vindicated by the Senate.