Pelosi's Concerns About Trump's Mental Health
My Story as America's First Woman Speaker of the House," Nancy Pelosi details concerns expressed by medical professionals regarding then-President Donald Trump's mental health.
During a 2019 memorial service for psychiatrist Dr. David Hamburg, doctors and other mental health professionals shared their deep concern "that there was something seriously wrong" with Trump and that "his mental and psychological health was in decline," Pelosi writes.
She describes Trump's behavior as "difficult to understand," noting his frequent clashes with her during her second stint as Speaker of the House. Pelosi served as speaker between 2007 and 2011 and between 2019 and 2023, coinciding with the latter half of Trump's presidency and the beginning of President Joe Biden's time in office.
Trump's Behavior and the Capitol Riot
Trump's often bizarre behavior has come under increasing scrutiny following his two impeachments, including one for the Capitol riot, his 34 felony convictions, and his orders to pay hundreds of millions in damages in several civil cases.
By the time of the January 6, 2021, insurrection, Pelosi writes, she "knew Donald Trump's mental imbalance." She cites his denial and delays during the Covid pandemic, his foul language and temper tantrums, and his "repeated, ridiculous insistence that he was the greatest of all time."
Pelosi notes how staffers, such as Trump's last Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, indulged his odd behavior, leading to the speaker banning phones in her meeting rooms.
Pelosi's Call for Intervention
Following the Capitol attack, Pelosi and the Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer placed a call to then-Vice President Mike Pence about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump.
Pelosi writes that she admired Pence for his actions on January 6, when he presided over the certification of the 2020 election results after refusing to leave the Capitol even as the mob of Trump supporters chanted that he should be hanged.
However, after being on hold for 20 minutes, Pence never got on the phone with Pelosi and Schumer and didn't return their call.
Pelosi concludes that Trump's family and staff should have staged an intervention, stating, "If his family and staff truly understood his disregard for both the fundamentals of the law and for basic rules, and if they had reckoned with his personal instability over not winning the [2020] election, they should have staged an intervention. Whether because of willful blindness, money, prestige or greed, they didn’t – and America has paid a steep price.
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