Fact Check: Is Trump right about Nancy Pelosi’s Chinatown ‘parties’?
President Donald Trump has slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi four times since Friday, suggesting she’s taking a vacation and promoting street fairs and parties in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
He’s incorrect.
Since the coronavirus outbreak shut down much of the country last month, the California Democrat has been working either out of her San Francisco home and at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
She returned to Washington Monday, as her office said she had planned before Trump’s criticisms.
Pelosi has been personally involved in negotiating with Trump administration officials a new economic aid package that aims to help small businesses and hospitals.
And when she visited San Francisco’s Chinatown in late February, she did not advocate a street party.
Friday Morning: “ENDLESS VACATION!”
Trump and Pelosi have been bitter rivals for some time. Friday, he escalated his attack with a morning tweet.
“Today people started losing their jobs because of Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, who should immediately come back to Washington and approve legislation to help families in America. End your ENDLESS VACATION!”
The House all but stopped having full sessions March 14, the same time that the nation began its coronavirus-idriven shutdowns. The entire House reconvened March 27 to agree on an $2.2 trillion economic aid package by voice vote, then left again. It could return Thursday to vote on the latest aid proposal.
Friday Afternoon: “She’s away on vacation”
Friday afternoon, the president again criticized Pelosi.
“ Look, Nancy Pelosi, she’s away on vacation or something and she should come back,” Trump told a news conference.
“She should come back and get this done. I don’t know why she’s not coming back. The fact is she’s not doing her job and there’s nothing unusual about that for her.”
Pelosi at the time was deeply involved in crafting the latest economic aid package.
She was also appearing frequently in public forums, often as a guest in television talk shows.
Trump also Friday tweeted Pelosi was an “incompetent political hack,” and urged her to “Come back to Washington & take care of our great American workers.”
He included a clip from the previous night that had Pelosi showing TV host James Corden her freezer, which included several containers of $12 a pint ice cream.
Pelosi, though, has not been on vacation.
On April 14, three days before Trump’s Friday tweets, she wrote a “Dear Colleague” letter going point by point and blasting Trump. “The truth is a weak person, a poor leader, takes no responsibility. A weak person blames others,” she wrote.
Wednesday she issued three statements on coronavirus-related matters and took questions from CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Thursday she held her news conference with a conference call and on Friday was interviewed on MSNBC.
Saturday she wrote another “Dear Colleague” letter, this time about progress in bipartisan stimulus negotiations, and the next day appeared on”Fox News Sunday.” Monday, she was interviewed live CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
Sunday and Monday: “She wanted to have a street party”
Sunday and Monday, Trump fired at Pelosi again. “You know, she was having parties in San Francisco. ‘Let’s all go to Chinatown.’’’ he said. Sunday.
Monday, Trump elaborated. “I put a ban on China before anybody in this country died. I put on a ban. So you tell me. Nancy Pelosi was having...she wanted to have a street party in Chinatown in San Francisco at the end of February,” he told a news conference.
“And then they tell me it’s only a political talking point,” he said.
He came back to that thought later. “Nancy Pelosi was holding a street fair. She wants a street fair in San Francisco in Chinatown to prove...you know what the purpose of it was? To prove there is no problem. Many other politicians did the same thing,’’ he said.
Pelosi on February 24 visited San Francisco’s Chinatown. At the time its businesses were being hurt by perceptions about China, where the coronavirus originated.
Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s spokesman, said the speaker’s visit came three weeks before Bay Area counties issued a shelter in place order.
Her purpose, he said, was “to make a statement about anti-Asian American sentiment.” At the time, there was concern that many were blaming China and Chinese-Americans for the spread of the disease.
The speaker visited The Wok Shop, a temple and the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, and had lunch at a dim sum restaurant, according to an NBC Bay Area account. It said she “hugged friends and waved to onlookers.”
At a media availability at the Dim Sum Corner Restaurant, she urged people to patronize local businesses.
“We should come to Chinatown. Precautions have been taken by our city. We know that there is concern surrounding tourism, traveling all throughout the world, but we think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come,” she said at the time.
“It’s lovely here. The food is delicious, the shops are prospering, the parade was great. Walking tours continue. Please come and visit and enjoy Chinatown.”
San Francisco’s Chinese New Year parade occurred February 8, 16 days before Pelosi’s visit.
She did not mention parties or street fairs, and did acknowledge concern about the coronavirus.
”Prevention, prevention, prevention. We want people to be concerned and vigilant. However, we don’t want them to be afraid,” she said.
Trump announced his “15 days to slow the spread” social distancing plan on March 16.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Fact Check: Is Trump right about Nancy Pelosi’s Chinatown ‘parties’?."
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