Pelosi: Democrats 'have to win this election' following Trump's 'bloodbath' remarks
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday underscored the stakes of the November election after former President Trump warned of a “bloodbath” for the auto industry and the country if he doesn’t win a second term in the White House.
At a campaign rally in Ohio on Saturday, Trump called for a 100 percent tariff on cars made outside the country, saying the industry would only be protected with him in office.
“If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” Trump said.
His critics instantly seized on the remarks, characterizing them as a call for political violence.
Pelosi, a frequent political foe of the former president, said the remarks highlight how important it is for Democrats that Biden win reelection.
"We just have to win this election because he's even predicting a bloodbath,” Pelosi told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
“What does that mean? He's going to exact a bloodbath? There's something wrong here. How respectful I am of the American people and their goodness. But how much more do they have to see from him to understand that this isn't what our country is about?” Pelosi continued. “Praising Hitler, praising the Russians, honestly, I mean, condemning our soldiers for losing or dying in war or being captured in war.”
Pelosi pleaded with the American public to take these issues into account when they head to the polls in November.
“There's something wrong here. So I just say, with all the respect in the world for voters and their right to make their decision, weigh these equities. How much are you concerned about … women having the right to choose or LGBT people having the right to their lives, that you would vote for him?”
Trump and his allies have shot back at the media coverage of his Saturday remarks, saying they were taken out of context.
An account on X, formerly Twitter, affiliated with the Trump campaign pointed to an unlikely voice defending Trump.
"The president was clearly talking about the impact of imports devastating the American automotive industry," former Vice President Mike Pence, who announced Friday he would not endorse Trump in 2024, said in a CBS News "Face the Nation" interview.
"Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are engaging in deceptively, out-of-context editing that puts Roman Polanski to shame," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
"They are the ones engaging in leveraging judicial lawfare to go after their main political opponent— President Trump — because he is crushing Joe in the polls. There isn’t any amount of special medicine they can inject him with to make him look alive, behave normally, or stop him from falling on his ass all the time," he added.