Pelosi to reporter: ‘Don’t mess with me!’

WASHINGTON (AP):

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bristling over a question about whether she “hates” President Donald Trump.

Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference on Thursday that as a Catholic, she resents the suggestion that she hates anyone. She fired back at the questioner: “Don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that!”

The reporter asked: “Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?”

“I don’t hate anybody,” Pelosi responded. She went on to call Trump, the subject of only the fourth presidential impeachment inquiry in history, a “coward” on gun policy, “cruel” on immigration, and “in denial” about climate issues.

Earlier, Pelosi announced that the House would draft articles of impeachment against Trump over his pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrats and political rival Joe Biden as Trump was withholding aid to Ukraine.

On impeachment, she told reporters: “This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the president’s violation of the oath of office.”

She said she prays for Trump, with whom she has faced off all year on issues like the partial government shutdown.