To view this on the COS website, click here shut-up-pelosi-explained
The former Speaker doesn't like when the media speak up.
| “'Shut up,' he explained” is the famous line written by the great author Ring Lardner in his humorous 1920 short novel The Young Immigrunts, in which Lardner has a totally exasperated father reply as such to to a question posed by a persistent and pestering child. While it may seem that former Speaker of the House and still-member of Congress Nancy Pelosi has been around long enough to have read the story soon after it was first published, she seems to drink deeply from the famous line in her interactions with the media. On October 15, Pelosi, who is 85 and has been in Congress since 1987, was carefully making her way down the steps of the Capitol with the assistance of a legislative aide, when she was asked why she “refused the National Guard” during the events of January 6, 2021. Pelosi was also asked about whether she is worried that she will be found liable by a congressional committee for her action and inaction on January 6. “Shut up!” she explained, and soon followed up with an enraged statement and question of her own: “I did not refuse the National Guard. The president didn’t send it. Why are you coming here with Republican talking points as if you are a serious journalist?” Watch for yourself below: As you saw, the video then cuts to footage from an earlier date of a masked Pelosi being carted around in her taxpayer-funded SUV talking about whose responsibility it really was for not having the National Guard in place on that day. Were you able to stifle a laugh when she talked of “accountability”? Accountability may seem more like a punchline to people like Pelosi, who seem to act as if their place in Congress is a birthright, not a responsibility, and that they are above being asked anything by anyone, including the media. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed the American Newspaper Publishers Association. He said, in part, ”Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed – and no republic can survive.“ He added that …“government at all levels must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security.” Once again, Pelosi has demonstrated that JFK is no longer a standard, but Ring Lardner's humor is good enough to meet the obligations of a federal representative. It's long past time to put an actual sell-by date on lifetime politicians who have long past transformed from representatives of the people to self-appointed arbiters of law and representative government. Let's chart a new course. An Article V convention will address term limits for federal officials, including members of Congress who see elected office not as temporary service to the republic, but as a lifetime sinecure. Sign the petition below and let's get to work. In other words, “Shut up,” we explained. # | PETITION_WIDGET{petition_tag:;coalition_id:;anedot_url:} | # |
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| Created: | 2025-10-16 12:55 GMT |
| Updated: | 2025-10-23 07:00 GMT |
| Published: | 2025-10-16 13:38 GMT |
| Converted: | 2025-11-11 12:07 GMT |
| Change Author: | Matt May |
| Credit Author: | |