The Cringeworthy Sunset of Nancy Pelosi

Perhaps no one in American politics has benefitted more from Joe Biden’s obvious physical and cognitive decline than former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

With so much attention focused on Biden’s endless stream of gaffes, stumbles, and blunders, far less has been made of Pelosi’s own embarrassing and oftentimes bizarre antics in the final years of her congressional career.

But with each passing day, it becomes more and more clear that Pelosi has stayed past last call.

The former speaker most recently went viral in March for an unintentionally hilarious comment while speaking on the House floor in support of a bill to force the sale of TikTok to a U.S. company. “This is not an attempt to ban TikTok. It’s an attempt to make TikTok better. Tic-tac-toe, a winner. A winner,” the 84-year-old Pelosi said, adding hand gestures showing a diagonal win in the classic pen-and-paper game.

The moment quickly drew mockery on social media and even from noted liberal late night host John Oliver, who joked, “Is it a rule that, to be in Congress, you have to be one of the weirdest [people] to ever live?”

Just a few weeks prior to that, Pelosi again humiliated herself by gushing over Biden’s State of the Union Address. Despite Biden giving one of the most divisive, caustic, and nakedly partisan State of the Union Addresses in history, Pelosi called Biden’s remarks a “masterclass,” assuring Americans that they are “blessed by the wisdom, experience, and steady hand of President Joe Biden.” She then went on cable media and fawned over Biden in a desperate and transparent attempt to spin the speech as an inspiring success.

But that wasn’t the first time Pelosi debased herself during the State of the Union. Two years prior, while she was still speaker and sitting right behind Biden, Pelosi could be seen bizarrely rubbing her knuckles together and grinding her teeth.

Two years before that, Pelosi delivered what was perhaps the most petty and childish display of her career when she ripped up her copy of President Trump’s 2020 State of the Union Address live on national television.

At the time, Pelosi explained that she had been motivated by what she claimed were “lies” in the text of the speech. But the video later revealed that Pelosi had spent much of the address making small “pre-tears” in each page so she could be assured of successfully ripping it at the conclusion. The entire spectacle was a bit of premeditated political theater.

Pelosi also dived in the deep end on the “bloodbath” hoax earlier this year, claiming during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union that former President Donald Trump said he would “exact a bloodbath” if he does not win this November’s presidential election. In reality, Trump said the U.S. auto industry was “in for a bloodbath” if Biden wins re-election this fall, a comment that was taken wildly out of context by the corporate media. During the same interview, Pelosi also falsely claimed Trump was “praising Hitler” and “praising the Russians.”

The very fact that Pelosi is still in Congress at all after stepping down from the speakership has raised eyebrows in Washington.

Traditionally, ex-speakers don’t stick around long after leaving the post, especially octogenarian former speakers who have already occupied their seats in Congress for almost four decades.

Pelosi’s successor as speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, resigned from Congress just a few months after losing the post. Republican Paul Ryan also retired from Congress at the end of his speakership, and John Boehner, Ryan’s predecessor, resigned from Congress shortly after stepping down.

Even Newt Gingrich, the most successful Republican speaker in decades who crafted the famous “Contract with America” and led the GOP back to the majority in the House for the first time in 40 years, retired from Congress shortly after his resignation as speaker.

Yet Pelosi, rather than choosing to enjoy her twilight years – and her net worth in excess of $100 million – has continued to cling to her seat in Congress, announcing last September that she will seek re-election again this fall.

But even before leaving the speakership, Pelosi’s final years were increasingly filled with cringe-worthy moments.

In early 2020, for instance, as COVID was just beginning to take hold in the United States, Pelosi urged crowds to gather in San Francisco’s Chinatown in an obviously contrived plot to oppose President Trump’s harsh rhetoric toward China. (This was right at the height of feigned liberal outrage over Trump’s use of the term “the China Virus.”) The former speaker even posted a video to her social media accounts urging people to gather together, which was subsequently deleted.

As the country began locking down, Pelosi also took flak for showing off her $20,000 freezer stocked with $12-per-pint ice cream in a failed effort to show solidarity with the American people, many of whom had just had their incomes ripped away from them by government policies. The move earned her criticism even from far-left groups, with the progressive Justice Democrats calling it an “unforced error” and demanding Pelosi’s resignation.

As if that weren’t bad enough, Pelosi elicited nationwide mockery after she used her political clout to visit a shuttered hair salon during the lockdowns, defying California’s mask mandate as well. The salon owner called it a “slap in the face” and “disturbing.”

Yet instead of apologizing for breaking COVID-19 restrictions, Pelosi bizarrely claimed that she was the victim of a “set-up,” putting the blame on the single mother who owned the salon and was struggling to keep food on the table as the government kept her business shut down.

Pelosi has also long drawn public ire over allegations of insider trading. As public disclosures show, Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul have consistently outperformed the market, earning an astonishing 63 percent rate of return for their portfolio in 2023.

Pelosi has, unsurprisingly, strongly opposed putting restrictions on the ability of members of Congress to buy and sell individual stocks, laughably citing the “free market” while simultaneously working to impose socialist policies at every turn.

For 36 years, the corporate media and Democrat establishment have hailed Nancy Pelosi as a political genius and American icon. But as more embarrassing gaffes and damaging stories continue to pile up, that narrative is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

It seems that, like Joe Biden, Pelosi just can’t let go of the power, and her legacy will suffer as a result.

Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @ShaneHarris513.