House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said during her weekly press conference on Wednesday that it was “necessary” for the American people to witness her ripping President Trump’s State of the Union address, describing it as a “manifesto of mistruths.”

“I tore up a manifesto of mistruths. It’s very hard for us to get you to talk about the issues that we are working on — H.R. 3, infrastructure, the rest. He misrepresented all of that,” Pelosi said during the presser, contending that her act was “necessary.”

“It was necessary to get the attention of the American people to say, ‘This is not true, and this is how it affects you.’ And I don’t need any lessons from anybody,” she said, gesturing to the reporter, “especially the President of the United States, about dignity. Dignity.”

Pelosi maintained that her controversial decision did not send the wrong message.

“Tearing up his falsehoods, isn’t that the wrong message? No, it isn’t,” she said. “It’s just, I have tried to be gracious with him. I’m always dignified. I thought that was a very dignified act.”

“We will not allow any president to use that Capitol, that chamber of the House of Representatives — the People’s House — as a backdrop for him,” she added.

Before concluding the press conference, the speaker proclaimed that she “extended a hand of friendship” to Trump that night and described it as an “act of kindness” because Trump, she assessed, looked “a little sedated.”

“It was also an act of kindness because he looked to me like he was a little sedated,” she said, adding, “He looked that way last year, too”:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi / Facebook