President Donald Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tweeted out videos Thursday in an attempt to make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) seem slow and addled.
The strategy to depict Pelosi as senile began with Trump’s press conference Thursday, a day after the scuttled infrastructure meeting, when he said that she’s “deteriorating” and has “lost it.”
Around the same time, a doctored video of Pelosi with the audio slowed to make it seem like she was drunkenly slurring her words started disseminating through different social media platforms. That video has racked up millions of views.
Trump’s allies coalesced behind the strategy Thursday evening, taking to Fox to further paint Pelosi as decrepit and mentally lacking.
Trump tweeted out a compilation from Fox Business that night that spliced together clips of Pelosi stumbling over her words at a news conference. The hosts of the segment debated Pelosi’s mental acuity.
More here. This is the passage Trump just tweeted. Same show, pushing the line that Pelosi is senile. Pretty obviously feeding off these faked videos the Post uncovered today. pic.twitter.com/EziVX7vj5y
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 24, 2019
Giuliani opted for the doctored video, tweeting, “What’s wrong with Nancy Pelosi? Her speech pattern is bizarre.” He deleted the tweet but told a Washington Post reporter that he’d noticed a mental decline.
Text from @RudyGiuliani on why he tweeted/deleted distorted Pelosi video: “Thought I delete right away. Someone raised question about it and since I wasn’t sure I deleted it. But I have been noticing a gradual change in her speech pattern and gestures for sometime”
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) May 24, 2019
He addressed the tweet again Friday morning (we think?) with a fairly indecipherable tweet.
ivesssapology for a video which is allegedly is a caricature of an otherwise halting speech pattern, she should first stop, and apologize for, saying the President needs an “intervention.” Are pic.twitter.com/ZpEO7iRzV8
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) May 24, 2019
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski also referred to Pelosi “slurring” her words on Fox Business Network Thursday night:
Surprise surprise @CLewandowski_ already on the Lou Dobbs show pushing those doctored Pelosi videos first debunked today by WaPo https://t.co/0RelwLI27U pic.twitter.com/PmMCmQZGZA
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 23, 2019
The reaction comes as Pelosi has been calling for an “intervention” by Trump’s administration and family “for the good of the country.”
