California congresswoman and likely Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi defended her tropical vacation during the government shutdown this week; saying her Christmas trip was appropriate because Hawaii is technically a part of the United States.
Pelosi was speaking with NBC News when she was asked to comment on President Trump’s “swipe” about her taking a lavish holiday trip while thousands of federal workers went without pay throughout the country.
“I observed the Christmas holiday for a few days… and in fact cut in half the time I would have had with my family. It’s totally unimportant. The fact is we all stood ready and told our members we have 24 hours’ notice to be where we need to be,” said Pelosi.
“The President may not know this, but Hawaii is part of the United States of America. Maybe he doesn’t realize that,” she added.
Just wondering are you planning about posting that the Senate Majority Leader (Sen. McConnell, R-KY) and Speaker of the House (Del. Ryan, R-WI) were missing in action during the shutdown being also on vacation outside of Washington?
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To be fair, the question should be asked of Trump. Hannity is just reporting the interview.
And no doubt Trump is asking the question because he himself is always getting questioned about his trips and all. (So yes, you can chalk up his question to hurt feelings.)
My question would be how much of that vacation was government funded. All these congress critters have expense accounts to fly to/from home/DC, so I would expect most of them to be away during Christmas. I don’t begrudge any of them to be home for Christmas. But except for reps and senators from Hawaii, it would seem to me that money was mis-spent if the government paid for someone to go to HI.
All that said, it’s a petty complaint. Always is, regardless of the side it’s coming from. We’re talking about a few grand in expenses, which is a pittance compared to the $5 billion that’s driving the shutdown. (And the 5 billion is a pittance compared to the overall federal budget.)
It’s all “gotcha” politics. Petty. Vitriolic. Divisive.
I don’t believe the government paid for Pelosi, McConnell, or Ryans personal travel and/or lodgings while the three were on vacation so where it was is irrelevant.
I agree though, pointing it out for Pelosi while ignoring McConnell and Ryan (along with the rest of the Senators and Delegates) is an attempt at “gotcha” politics.
I don’t either. As far as I’m concerned it’s really the only factor worth harping about vis a vis the shutdown. And since I don’t expect it was government paid, even that is a non-issue.
Or payback politics. Or revenge politics. Or some such juvenility. (Is that a word? )
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