(CNN) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN Friday that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made a "confession" when he told reporters the White House held up military aid to Ukraine until that country agreed to investigate Democrats and that President Donald Trump's critics should "get over it."

Pelosi said Mulvaney's comments are an example of the White House trying to normalize lawlessness.

"The President and his team for a long time have tried to make a lawlessness normal and even make lawlessness a virtue," Pelosi said, when asked if she considered Mulvaney's comments an admission of an illegal quid pro quo.

"What he said was, of course, a confession, but it's also a cavalier attitude of get over it," she added. "It's so disrespectful of our Constitution, and it's just not the way our founders expected."

Mulvaney made the admission Thursday by confirming that Trump froze nearly $400 million in US security aid to Ukraine in part to pressure that country into investigating Democrats. "That's why we held up the money," Mulvaney said after listing a 2016-related investigation and Trump's broader concerns about corruption in Ukraine.

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