President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the InterContinental Barclay New York hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Even though the transcript of the July phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proves that there was no quid pro quo discussion, impeachment fever continues to gain momentum in the fever swamps of the Democratic party.

Trump, who has insisted all along that the media and Democrats have manufactured outrage over a non-story, was asked today after the transcript was released about whether or not he’d spoken to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the impeachment issue. Here’s what he said:

“No, she’s lost her way,” Trump said, responding to a question regarding whether he tried to strike a deal on impeachment with Pelosi.



“She’s been taken over by the radical Left. She may be radical Left herself, but she really has lost her way,” Trump continued. “I spoke to her about guns yesterday. She didn’t even know what I was talking about.”

[…]

“The whole party is taken over by the Left,” Trump said. “They’ve been taken over by a radical group of people, and Nancy Pelosi, as far as I’m concerned, unfortunately, she’s no longer the speaker of the House.”

Judging from the context, what Trump was suggesting was that while Pelosi is officially Speaker of the House, she’s not really running the show anymore. Members of the AOC-led Squad, who have long pushed for impeachment, are among the House’s de facto far left leaders right now in the eyes of many Republicans, including Trump.

Sadly, the mainstream media have still not learned any lessons from their gross misreporting (to put it charitably) of the Mueller investigation, the “blockbuster” new sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Ukraine phone call, and now this.

As evidence, read the tweets and stories below, which show how badly journalists collectively stepped on a rake this afternoon in responding to Trump’s remarks after others in the media, including the Associated Press’ Zeke Miller, predictably tweeted the comments out of context:

Trump: "Nancy Pelosi, as far as I'm concerned, unfortunately, she's no longer the Speaker of the House" — Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 25, 2019

Media firefighters and liberal commentators alike (but I repeat myself) donned their superhero capes in a rush to defend Pelosi:

That's, uh, not how it works… https://t.co/XCeWrBkQJU — Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) September 25, 2019

The president doesn't get to decide that. https://t.co/YvIdJiDHEN — Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) September 25, 2019

Trump ends the press conference by saying Pelosi is no longer the Speaker of the House. Don't think that's the way it works. — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 25, 2019

Again, Trump is going to say completely absurd shit like Nancy Pelosi is no longer Speaker of the House because it is utterly impossible for him to defend himself on the merits. He's terrified, and he should be. — Ethan Grey (@_EthanGrey) September 25, 2019

Perhaps the worst example comes from Roll Call’s John T. Bennett, who actually framed the story from the bogus perspective that Trump was trying to undermine Pelosi, even though the President’s comments clearly indicate he was hinting that it was the Impeachment Caucus who were undermining Pelosi. Here’s how Bennett’s piece started out (bolded emphasis added by me):

Refusing to back away from a major political scandal, President Donald Trump undermined Speaker Nancy Pelosi while lobbing new allegations of corruption at one of Democratic 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden’s sons.

But it was what he wrote later in the piece after quoting Trump saying Pelosi was “no longer the speaker” that had heads crashing to desks:

“As far as I’m concerned, she’s no longer the speaker of the House,” Trump said before dismissing a group of reporters.



Pelosi is, in fact, the speaker. A sitting president cannot dismiss a speaker as easily as the travel pool covering him at a gathering of world leaders.

This is just straight up liberal bias. No question about it. Trump was not literally “dismissing” her as Speaker of the House, and the line about him dismissing “the travel pool” is something you’d expect an unhinged liberal CNN commentator like April Ryan to state rather indignantly, not a supposedly objective news reporter.

Bennett, who lists himself as a senior White House correspondent in his Twitter bio, unquestionably editorialized a number of times in what was supposed to be a straight news piece.

I tagged him in a tweet about it after I discovered what he’d written, but as of this writing he has yet to respond:

This take from @RollCall's @BennettJohnT provides a perfect example of why there is so little trust for the MSM anymore. It's clear Trump was not speaking *literally* of Pelosi not being speaker, just that he believed the far left had effectively taken over her position. pic.twitter.com/CT0XAcFzCP — Sister Toldjah 😁 (@sistertoldjah) September 25, 2019

For the record, here is the video of Trump’s full remarks about Pelosi:

TRUMP SLAMS PELOSI: "Look, she's lost her way. She's been taken over by the radical left. She may be a radical left herself but she really has lost her way." "Nancy Pelosi, unfortunately, she's no longer the Speaker of the House" pic.twitter.com/CJ3RLuRAp8 — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 25, 2019

What Trump was saying there should be obvious to just about everyone, but I’m not considered a Real Reporter™ in certain circles so maybe I missed something in the translation…

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –