Pelosi to Trump: ‘Hawaii is part of the United States of America’
HONOLULU – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is shooting back at critics who questioned why she was vacationing over the holidays in Hawaii amid a government shutdown.
Pelosi told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that she observed Christmas in the islands, but that she and other Democrats in the U.S. House “stood ready” to reconvene if a deal could be reached to reopen the government.
She added, “And the president may not know this, but Hawaii is part of the United States of America. Maybe he doesn’t realize that. That’s why he said Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States when he was born in Hawaii.”
“Hawaii has airports and airlines and telephones.”
Pelosi came under fire for traveling to the Big Island over the holidays — while President Trump cancelled his planned visit to Florida because of the shutdown.
Trump subsequently took to Twitter to criticize members of Congress who had left the nation’s capital.
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, meanwhile, took a direct jab at Pelosi on Fox News, saying there needed to be “less hula, more moola for DHS and Customs and Border Patrol.”