Trump Campaign Takes Pelosi’s Words Out of Context
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an April 14 interview that the Paycheck Protection Program was “very important,” and with a second round of funding, she wanted to “open this up to many more people,” specifically the “underbanked.” But that context is missing from a Trump campaign video.
The video, posted on Twitter by Brad Parscale, campaign manager for President Donald Trump’s reelection effort, leaves the false impression that Pelosi opposes replenishing funding for the small business loan program — a $349 billion coronavirus relief initiative that ran out of funding on April 16.
The video uses select quotes from Pelosi that appear to show her dismissing $250 billion in additional funding proposed by Republicans. But that’s not the whole story.
In the campaign video, Pelosi says: “They asked for a quarter of a trillion dollars in 48 hours. I said, well, I don’t think so.” In the April 14 interview on MSNBC, however, Pelosi prefaced that remark by asking, “Well, what happens to our underbanked folks?” Her next sentence after the quote in the video: “Let’s see how we can open this up to many
