Appearing Thursday on CBS’s The Late Show with host Stephen Colbert, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she “prayed” for the United States after learning of President Donald Trump’s telephone conversation with the leader of Ukraine, which has sparked an impeachment inquiry into the president.
A partial transcript is as follows:
STEPHEN COLBERT: When you heard what was in that telephone call, what was your first reaction? What were the first words that came out of your mouth? And we can bleep them if need be.
SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: I prayed for the United States of America. Really, because it’s a really sad thing. We don’t want to impeach a president, we don’t want the reality that a president has done something that is in violation of the Constitution. But it was more about — so much had happened before — and I had not been, enthusiastic about the divisiveness that would occur from an impeachment. Weighing the equities, I had said then, “he’s not worth impeaching” because it’s going to divide the country further that he had already divided. But, this was something that you could not ignore.
In one conversation, he undermined our national security, by withholding military assistance to a country that had been voted on by the Congress of the United States to the benefit of the Russians. At the same time, he jeopardized the integrity of our elections, the heart of our democracy. And in doing so, in my view, he possibly violated his oath of office, to protect, defend, and preserve the Constitution of the United States.