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Pelosi rips up Trump’s speech after he appears to snub her handshake offer

When asked why she destroyed her copy of the speech, Pelosi said that “it was the courteous thing to do.“

“I tore it up,“ she flatly told reporters while leaving the House chamber.

The White House responded with a terse tweet shortly after, characterizing Pelosi‘s gesture as disrespectful to the guests honored in Trump‘s address.

Pelosi later tweeted a picture of her extending her hand at the start of the speech. “Democrats will never stop extending the hand of friendship to get the job done,“ the tweet read.

The extraordinary exchanges had extra significance as Trump delivered his address in the chamber where he was impeached — the third such president in U.S. history to be marred with that distinction. The Senate is currently deliberating the two articles of impeachment against Trump and is expected to acquit the president on Wednesday.

Though Pelosi has been a major force in Trump’s impeachment, she has adamantly denied personal hostility toward the president. In a passionate response to a reporter who asked whether she hated Trump, Pelosi said in December that she didn’t hate anyone and warned the reporter not to “mess with me with a word like that.”

Tuesday night’s encounter was not the first time Trump denied a handshake in a moment that ended up going viral. In March 2017, the president appeared to ignore German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s outstretched hand during a meeting in the Oval Office.

Source: politico.com
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