A group of amusing hecklers heckled Representative Nancy Pelosi on Monday night at her speech with economist Paul Krugman at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. They called her a “sad old drunk” and a “war criminal.” The hecklers disrupted the ceremony four times, usually criticizing Pelosi for her claimed drinking habit, foreign policy blunders, and corruption.
For instance, one heckler said, “You know Pelosi, that’s a very good place for you in the depths of hell,” and claimed that Pelosi belonged in the lowest realms of hell because she supported the Iraq War. You have a terrible preoccupation with starting a conflict with us for some reason. Hey, why did you not acknowledge that Iraq did not contain any WMDs?
That same heckler went on to cry, “You lied us into a war in Iraq.” You persuaded us to attack Afghanistan. Currently, almost 90% of those individuals are dying from poverty. Why don’t you disclose Nordstream’s true story? What made us demolish Nordstream? Millions of Germans are losing energy as a result of you. You ought to be imprisoned; you are a war criminal!
After removing the first heckler, another one soon followed, shouting, “Hey congresswoman, I came to see a warmonger but you’re a sad old drunk! What took place? Were you searching for Ukraine when you traveled to Taiwan? Did we intentionally blow up the Nordstream or was it an accident? Did you become aware of that? … By definition, Ms. Pelosi, you are a war criminal. You’re quite brave. What a goddamn war criminal you are! In your fucking name, how many people have died?
After two more hecklers got up and attempted to holler at Hillary, security was prepared for them and took them out right away. The episode was reminiscent of the well-known incident in which a former Iraq War veteran heckled former President George W. Bush, shouting:
“Mr. Bush, when will you offer an apology to the millions of Iraqis who lost their lives as a result of your lies? You misrepresented your links to 9/11 and your possession of WMDs. About Iraq being a threat, you were lying. My pals have passed away. You made people die. You told a falsehood. You lied, and my pals are dead. You must extend your regrets! Express regret!
“After her historic tenure as speaker of the house, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi joins in conversation with Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman,” CUNY wrote in its description of the event.
The principal designer of laws that define a generation, such as the American Rescue Plan and the Affordable Care Act, is Pelosi, the 52nd speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first female speaker.
She has been a member of Congress for more than 35 years, and she is still the representative for San Francisco. She talks with bestselling author and distinguished professor of economics Krugman, who also serves as a senior scholar at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality and writes a column for The New York Times.