Former speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (84) has warned that former president Donald Trump is comparable to Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler in his attempts to delegitimise the press. In an interview with the Brendan O’Connor show on RTÉ Radio 1, Ms Pelosi indicated that Mr Trump “should never set foot in the White House again”.
“Comparing the tactics of Donald Trump to Mussolini or Hitler is a very legitimate thing. If you look at what they did to delegitimise the press. “He (former president Trump) said at a rally ‘if you beat up the press, don’t worry about it, I will pay your legal fees.’ This is a tactic of an authoritarian, and in those respects yes he has followed their (Mussolini and Hitler’s) pattern.”
Ms Pelosi said she was “very optimistic” that vice-president Kamala Harris will be successful in her attempt to become the first female president of the US. “She happens to be a woman and that is going to be very special for us. But she is the best candidate to win the White House.”
Ms Pelosi has published a new book titled The Art of Power in which she details how she became a master legislator, a key partner to presidents, and the most visible leader of the Trump resistance. She also spoke of her respect for president Joe Biden, whom she described as a “consequential president”.
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“He did more in his first two years with Democrats in the majority than any president in modern time. It [withdrawing from the presidential campaign] was his decision. That is all I am going to say about it.”
She described the failed assassination attempt on Mr Trump last month as a “horrible thing” and thanked God that the former president “came out of it apparently uninjured”.
Ms Pelosi also told stand-in host Dearbhail McDonald of the trauma experienced by her family when David DePape (44) broke in to the Pelosi family home in San Francisco on October 28th, 2022. DePape attacked her then-82-year-old husband Paul. Last May DePape was jailed for 30 years arising out of his attack. Ms Pelosi said her husband was “making progress” following the incident during which he was bludgeoned with a hammer.
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