Pelosi also deployed a classic Trump rhetorical technique with that ‘they say’. That phrase, alongside others like ‘so I’ve heard’ and ‘people are saying’, is a Trump favorite because he can make an appeal to authority without ever identifying the authority — likely because the ‘authority’ doesn’t actually exist. The Washington Post noticed this tactic back in 2016, noting that Trump uses it to ‘couch’ his more controversial statements.
Pelosi is in a similar situation; official White House doctors have declined to say that Trump is actually obese, merely overweight. In fact, his medical reports have stirred up a plethora of conspiracy theories from people accusing Trump’s doctors of skimming a few pounds from his real weight to avoid the ‘obese’ classification…
Biden should probably let Pelosi handle the pejoratives from here on out, although her past swipes at Trump have also been found lacking. In one of her most famous recent examples, she ripped up into Trump’s State of the Union address on national television. It was delightfully tacky, but backfired immediately when people noted she had ripped up a speech touting record high unemployment, celebrating the troops, and honoring scholarship recipients. The truth is, when it comes to small-minded slights, no one can match The Donald.
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