Trump shares edited video of Pelosi appearing to ‘stammer’ through speeches

President Trump shared an edited video of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday, mocking the Democratic leader for various moments during a press conference earlier in the day where Pelosi appeared to misspeak.

Trump tweeted the video with the caption: “PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE.”

The video, which first appeared on Fox Business’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” cut together a number of Pelosi’s apparent flubs in quick succession, but did not appear to be altered in any other way.

Earlier Thursday, a number of videos shared by conservative accounts went viral — those clips were deceptively edited to make Pelosi appear as if she was slurring her words due to intoxication. The video Trump shared did not appear to have the same alterations. 

“PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE” pic.twitter.com/1OyCyqRTuk

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019

The video was briefly pinned to top of the president’s Twitter feed Thursday evening.{mosads}

Reporters who reviewed the video, including a Washington Post AI reporter, said that the video shared by Trump, unlike a similar video that had been viewed more than 1.3 million times on Facebook, did not appear to be edited beyond removing context to Pelosi’s remarks and quickly cutting from various mistakes the Speaker made during her press conference.

This video is different from the slowed and distorted “drunk” one, but it serves the same purpose, by attempting to disparage Speaker Pelosi. It’s also stripped of context, cut and edited so as to make it hugely disorienting, probably by design https://t.co/qUbrMnjaXH

— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) May 23, 2019

Trump tweeted a different video of Pelosi on Thursday evening, this one edited to highlight moments in a recent speech where she stumbled or stuttered. It did not appear to have been otherwise manipulated.

— Axios (@axios) May 23, 2019

His tweet came hours after YouTube removed altered videos of Pelosi following requests for comment from The Hill and other news outlets, though falsely edited videos of the Speaker remained on Facebook into Thursday evening.

“YouTube has clear policies that outline what content is not acceptable to post and we remove videos violating these policies when flagged to us. These videos violated our policies and have been removed,” a spokesperson for YouTube told The Hill.

The president had also shared other criticism of Pelosi’s speech habits throughout the night on Twitter, including a tweet quoting GOP campaign consultant Ed Rollins, who appeared on Dobbs’s show, saying Pelosi was unable to “put a subject with a predicate in the same sentence.”

“Nancy Pelosi should not be out there doing the kinds of things she is doing. She will diminish herself and her membership. She cannot put a subject with a predicate in the same sentence. What’s going on?” Ed Rollins @GreggJarrett @LouDobbs

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2019

Trump’s personal attacks aimed at Pelosi come after he abruptly ended a Wednesday meeting at the White House with Democratic leaders on infrastructure after Pelosi accused him of being engaged in a “cover-up.” The two have been at odds since Trump threatened yesterday that he’d no longer work with the Democrats on their top legislative priorities if the House does not end its investigations into his finances and conduct.

Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted Trump’s conduct following the Wednesday meeting, accusing the president of stalling action on a $2 trillion infrastructure deal over his refusal to comply with congressional probes into his administration.