Hillary Clinton, with her talk of some of Donald Trump's supporters being "deplorables" and her accusations that Trump is courting the "alt-right" side of the party, is missing one important thing, Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday: He's not the only Republican with "off the arc" beliefs.
"Answering for myself and not Hillary, there's not a great deal of difference between what Donald Trump has said on the campaign trail that people find appalling, things like climate change is a hoax, that we don't hear every day in the Congress of the United States," the California Democrat and former House Speaker told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
Trump, as the GOP presidential nominee, is "off the arc," Pelosi continued, "but there are many people in the Congress who are off the arc too. So I don't think that you can just say that he's different from the people."
She insisted that she doesn't "paint them all with the same brush" when it comes to Republicans in Congress, but still, "this beautiful debate that we go to congress confident in our views, ready to debate, willing to negotiate, is something that's gone from the Republicans in Congress."
Meanwhile, Pelosi told the program that Trump has become the "gift that keeps on giving every day," as many of his statements have helped mobilize Democrats at the grassroots level.
"Don't get too carried away by redistricting," Pelosi said. "When we took the House in 2006, which you know was not something that anyone predicted. It was a shock. We had just been the victim of a mid decade redistricting in Texas. A difference of 14 seats. Nonetheless we came in and won. It's on obstacle but not insurmountable. You don't win if you don't fight and we'll fight for every seat."
Democrats need 30 seats to win the House, and Pelosi is predicting there will be a "single digit difference" in the number that is reached, but also that "we'll make tremendous inroads in terms of the number of Democrats in the House."
Pelosi also complained about the lack of action when it comes to passing legislation on the Zika virus.
"It's just a philosophical difference between Democrats and Republicans in the Congress," she said. "They have said no matter what we do, we're not going have contraception as part of a bill."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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