WASHINGTON – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that President Donald Trump threw a temper tantrum at a meeting with Democratic congressional leaders a day earlier and that she wished his family or staff would conduct “an intervention” with Trump for the good of the country.
“Again, I pray for the president of the United States. I wish that his family, or his administration, or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country,” Pelosi told reporters.
WATCH: Pelosi calls Trump a ‘master of distraction’
Trump on Wednesday abruptly cut short a meeting with Democratic lawmakers on infrastructure, then ripped into them over Pelosi’s accusation that he is engaged in a cover-up and asserted that he could not work with them unless they dropped multiple investigations.
“I don’t do cover-ups,” the Republican president, clearly agitated, told reporters at a previously unscheduled Rose Garden appearance.
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WATCH: GOP House leader slams Pelosi for saying Trump ‘wants impeachment’
The rupture bodes ill for any possible cooperation between the president and the Democrats who control the House of Representatives on legislation on infrastructure or other matters as Trump seeks re-election in 2020, signaling deepening political gridlock in Washington.
After the blow-up of the meeting and Trump’s diatribe, Democrats accused him of setting them up and expressed concern about his conduct and the long-term outlook.
— Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Writing by Mohammad Zargham
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