Pelosi: Netanyahu speech 'insulting to the intelligence of the United States'

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dismissed a speech Tuesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as full of “condescension” and an “insult to the intelligence of the United States.”

The California Democrat was visibly upset during Netanyahu’s address on the House floor, in which the Israeli leader urged Congress to take a more aggressive line against Iran as part of ongoing negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Pelosi and other congressional Democrats were critical of the brash language Netanyahu used to describe those negotiations.

“That is why, as one who values the U.S.-Israel relationship, and loves Israel, I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech — saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation,” Pelosi said in a statement.

Netanyahu used his address, which garnered significant interest from lawmakers, to question the wisdom of crafting a nuclear deal with Iran instead of enacting stricter sanctions against the government.

“Right now, Iran could be hiding nuclear facilities that we don’t know about,” Netanyahu said. “Iran has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted.”