CNBC host Jim Cramer echoed President Trump during an interview with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday, calling her “crazy Nancy.”
Cramer made the remark during a live interview as he questioned her about the odds for a coronavirus relief package. He immediately apologized for the comment, saying he had meant to paraphrase Trump, but Pelosi noted that the words came out of the host’s mouth.
“What deal can we have, crazy Nancy? I’m sorry, that was the president. I have such reverence for the office, I would never use that term,” Cramer said.
“But you just did,” Pelosi replied.
“Anything the president says is a projection of his own insecurities. He calls other people crazy because he knows he is,” Pelosi said. “He’s a master of projection. So anytime he says something you say, ‘Uh-oh, that’s what he’s thinking of himself.’ “
As he ended the interview, Cramer reiterated that he was being “facetious” by saying “crazy Nancy.”
“You know I was being facetious when I used the term,” Cramer said.
“I do,” Pelosi said.
“The Speaker of the House should not be called that name,” Cramer continued. “I don’t even want to use it again.”
During the interview, the CNBC host pressed Pelosi on why she and Trump wouldn’t try to speak directly while negotiations over a coronavirus relief package have remained stalled for nearly two months.
Pelosi maintained that it was more productive to speak with intermediaries like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“What is the point? I mean, the president has sent his representatives. If he has confidence in them, then I do too,” Pelosi said.
She also reiterated that direct communications with Trump tend to be unproductive and unreliable.
“If you’re talking to him, you’re almost wasting your time, because it’s not going to pan out,” Pelosi said.
The latest salvo underscores how much relations between the president and the Speaker have deteriorated.
Pelosi and Trump have not had an extended conversation in almost a year. Nor have they been in the same room together since February, when they both attended the National Prayer Breakfast. That event came two days after Trump’s State of the Union address, during which the president appeared to snub Pelosi’s attempt at a handshake and she ripped up a copy of his speech.
Pelosi and Trump last met in October 2019 at the White House to discuss the president’s action to move U.S. troops out of northern Syria.
During that meeting, Pelosi told Trump that “all roads with you lead to Putin,” while Trump charged that “I hate ISIS more than you do.”
Trump later tweeted out a photo of the meeting that shows Pelosi standing up and pointing a finger at the president.
Pelosi has repeatedly questioned Trump’s mental health and suggested that he needs an “intervention” from advisers and family members.
After that October 2019 meeting, Pelosi told reporters that “we have to pray” for Trump’s health.
Pelosi on Tuesday corrected Cramer, saying it hasn’t yet been a full year since she spoke with Trump and noting that they had an encounter at the State of the Union address.
“It wasn’t a year. That was October, when I said to him, ‘Mr. President, with you all roads lead to Putin.’ … And that he took a picture of and sent out to people. Thank you, Mr. President,” Pelosi said.
“And I did communicate with him at the State of the Union address,” she added.
Trump last week defended not speaking directly with Pelosi or Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) about coronavirus relief. To date, Trump has dispatched Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to try to hammer out a deal with Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill.
“I know Pelosi, I know Schumer very well. They don’t want to make a deal because they think it’s good for politics if they don’t make a deal,” Trump said. “I’m taking the high road by not seeing them. That’s the high road.”
Talks over coronavirus relief, including some kind of extension of weekly enhanced federal unemployment insurance payments, have stalled since early August with the two sides remaining far apart.
Pelosi announced to Democrats earlier Tuesday that the House will remain in session until there is a deal on coronavirus aid. That announcement came as some moderate Democrats have expressed anxiety in recent days about potentially only remaining in session for a few weeks this month until Congress passes a spending bill to avoid a shutdown and leaving Washington until after the November elections.
— Updated at 12:48 p.m.