Pelosi can be seen in the lower right charging across the front of the House chamber while in session.
Enraged Pelosi Charges at Marino After Border Bill Statements
Newsmax
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, enraged by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tom Marino’s comments during debate on the border funding bill Friday night, crossed the House floor and followed him down an aisle, shaking her finger and arguing with him until other lawmakers broke up the squabble.
On Friday night, Marino angered the longtime California lawmaker when he accused Democrats of not taking control of the border situation while Pelosi was House Speaker and her party had control of the House, Senate, and White House in 2009 and 2010, reports ABC News.
“They didn’t have the strength to go after it back then,” said Marino of Pelosi and then-House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., along with other Democrats. “But now [they] are trying to make a political issue out of it.”
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Pelosi crossed the aisle, in view of cameras but off-mic and challenged Marino’s claims, so he reiterated them.
“Yes it is true,” he told her directly. “I did the research on it. You might want to try it. You might want to try it, Madam Leader. Do the research on it. Do the research. I did it. That’s one thing that you don’t do.”
He then told lawmakers he apparently “hit the right nerve,” and as his fellow party members applauded when he concluded his remarks, Pelosi came across the aisle again, ABC reports, pointing at Marino and arguing.
And as Marino went up a Republican aisle, Pelosi followed him, arguing as GOP lawmakers spoke out to complain that the House was out of order in an attempt to stop her and finally stepped between her and Marino.
She finally relented and returned to the Democratic side of the chamber, after which the House voted to approve the $694 million bill by a 223-189 count.
Pelosi spokeswoman Evangeline George said her boss “just wanted to remind the Congressman that House Democrats had the courage to pass the DREAM Act – and have the courage to stand up for what the American people want: bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform,” and claimed that Pelosi has “accepted the Congressman’s apology.”
However, Bill Tighe, Marino’s chief of staff, said Marino hasn’t apologized, and he won’t, “as he has nothing to apologize for. She was entirely out of line in approaching him while he was recognized and delivering remarks on the Floor.”
Marino struck back at Pelosi on Twitter with a series of three tweets Friday night:
Pelosi’s staff did not respond directly to Marino on Twitter, but instead posted a tweet chastising the House for its vote:
