Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s Monday evening speaking event with Paul Krugman, an economist, at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center was interrupted by a few hilarious hecklers who ripped into her as being both a “war criminal” and a “sad old drunk” when they interrupted the event. Those hecklers interrupted the event four times, berating Pelosi mainly for foreign policy missteps and her alleged corruption, along with her supposed drinking habit.
One heckler, for example, screamed that Pelosi belongs in the depths of hell for her involvement in the Iraq war, saying, “You know Pelosi, that’s a very good place for you in the depths of hell. For some reason, you have a very bad obsession of getting us into war. Hey, why is it that you did not admit that there were no WMDs in Iraq?”
Continuing, that same heckler yelled, “You lied us into a war in Iraq. You got us to invade Afghanistan. Now over 90 percent of those people are impoverished and are dying. Why don’t you tell the truth about Nordstream? Why did we destroy Nordstream? You’re leaving millions of Germans without energy. People like you should be arrested, you are a war criminal!”
That heckler was removed, but soon another stood up and started yelling, saying, “Hey congresswoman, I came to see a warmonger but you’re a sad old drunk! What happened? When you went to Taiwan, were you looking for Ukraine? Did we blow up the Nordstream on accident or on purpose? Did you know about that? … You’re a war criminal by definition Ms. Pelosi. You got some nerve. You goddam war criminal! How many people have died in your fucking name?”
Two other hecklers stood up and tried yelling at her as well, but security was ready for them at that point and quickly removed them. The event was somewhat similar to a famous incident where former President George W. Bush was heckled by a veteran of the Iraq War who yelled:
“Mr. Bush, when are you going to apologize for the million Iraqis that are dead because you lied? You lied about weapons of mass destruction, you lied about connections to 9/11. You lied about Iraq being a threat. My friends are dead. You killed people. You lied. My friends are dead because you lied. You need to apologize! Apologize!”
CUNY described the event by saying, “After her historic tenure as speaker of the house, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi joins in conversation with Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman. Pelosi, the 52nd speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first woman to serve as speaker, is the chief architect of generation-defining legislation, including the Affordable Care Act and the American Rescue Plan.”
Continuing, it added, “She continues to serve as a member of Congress representing San Francisco, which she has done for more than 35 years. She speaks with Krugman, a columnist for The New York Times and bestselling author, who is a distinguished professor of economics and a senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the CUNY Graduate Center.”
Watch the heckling incident here:
