House Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D-Calif) took to the floor of the lower chamber this week to condemn people who are “looting, starting fires and rioting” and called for those people to be prosecuted.
Pelosi began her speech by saying, “We support peaceful demonstrations, we participate in them, they are part of the essence of our democracy. That does not include looting, starting fires or rioting. They should be prosecuted, that is lawlessness.”
She added, “I’m very proud that Joe Biden has presented the clarity of that, making a distinction that I don’t think our colleagues quite understand but the American people do and a poll released today said that the American people support congressional Democrats over President Trump in terms of dealing with the issue of crime in our country for all of their misrepresentations.”
Speaker Pelosi: "We support peaceful demonstrations. We participate in them. They are part of the essence of our democracy. That does not include looting, starting fires, or rioting. They should be prosecuted. That is lawlessness." pic.twitter.com/Xq89RLR70f
— The Hill (@thehill) September 17, 2020
President Donald Trump has focused much of his campaign on a “law and order” messaging strategy, accusing Democrats of being weak on riots that have broken out alongside peaceful protests against police violence.
But Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has repeatedly blasted the idea that he’s sympathetic to rioters. In an early September speech, Biden said, “Let’s get something straight here, protesting is protesting, my buddy John Lewis used to say. But none of it justifies looting, burning, or anything else.”
Those remarks followed an late-August Biden speech in Pittsburgh in which he said, “You know me, you know my heart. You know my story, my family’s story. Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?”
On that occasion, the Democratic nominee added, “I want a safe America, safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting. Safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. Let me be crystal clear, safe from four more years of Donald Trump.”