Lindsey Graham mocks Pelosi’s ‘surgeries,’ apologizes
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) apologized for mocking House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s physical appearance during a closed-door fundraiser following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
{mosads}While noting that she had appeared irritated on the House floor, he speculated that she had undergone plastic surgery, Bloomberg View columnist Josh Rogin reported Tuesday.
“Did you see Nancy Pelosi on the floor. Complete disgust,” he said, according to the Bloomberg report. “If you can get through all the surgeries, there’s disgust.”
NBC News’ Frank Thorp tweeted that Graham had apologized.
“I made a very poor attempt at humor to talk about [Pelosi’s] reaction, and for that I apologize,” Graham was reported as saying.
At least one other Republican has mocked Pelosi before by suggesting that she has undergone cosmetic surgery. In 2011, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin accused Pelosi of telling a “tight-faced lie” about ObamaCare.
It is also not the first time Graham has been criticized for a joke. In October, he joked that “white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency” while speaking at an all-male club in Charleston.
Graham is among the crowded field of Republicans weighing a run for the presidency in 2016.
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who serves in leadership, had said that Graham should apologize if the quote was accurate.
If the reported quote by Sen. Graham about Leader Pelosi is accurate, he owes her an apology.
— James E. Clyburn (@Clyburn) March 3, 2015
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Pelosi said her visible reaction on the floor was evidence that she was “near tears” at the content Netanyahu’s speech.
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