Donald Trump is facing more criticism than ever now that he has jetted off to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his first term, as those who once held their tongues out of respect for their president no longer feel the constraints of fostering some sort of working relationship.
Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a longtime Trump ally, seems to have turned his back on the former president, lambasting the former NYC business mogul on his way out the door.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has long disdained Donald Trump, is now ratcheting up her own criticisms of the President in a big way.
In an MSNBC interview that aired Tuesday night, the House speaker accused Trump of inciting the deadly riot at the Capitol on January 6, which left at least five people dead including a U.S. Capitol Police officer.
“President’s words are important, they weigh a ton,” Pelosi said of Trump. “And if you’re Donald Trump talking to these people, they believe it, and they used his words to come here.”
The California lawmaker added that, if some members of Congress conspired with the people who stormed the Capitol, they too would be considered accessories to crimes committed during the riot.
“When we talk about, ‘Did any of our colleagues collaborate?’ Well, that remains to be seen,” Pelosi said.
“We have to get the evidence of that. And if they did, they would be accessory to the crime. And the crime, in some cases, was murder. And this president is an accessory to that crime because he instigated that insurrection that caused those deaths and this destruction,” she added.
The comment comes ahead of a second impeachment trial of Trump that could allow the Democrats to bar him from ever holding public office again.
