House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s response when asked if former President Donald Trump is a crook got the room of reporters laughing during her weekly press conference.
On Friday, Ms Pelosi fielded questions concerning the FBI raid at Mr Trump’s southern Florida estate.
Mr Trump and his allies in the GOP have been attempting to tarnish the FBI, with some far-right members going so far as to call for its defunding.
The raid to hunt down classified documents held by the former president was the likely motive for the 42-year-old man who attacked the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ricky Shiffer was killed by the authorities during the ensuing standoff.
Towards the end of her press conference, Ms Pelosi pushed back on a reporter who asked about the attack on the FBI to give the question to another journalist who had already been recognised.
“Can I ask about the attack in Ohio against the FBI, Madam Speaker? It appears that...” the first reporter began.
“This gentleman was recognised. I’m sorry. Go ahead,” Ms Pelosi said, indicating another journalist.
“There was enough concern apparently for a search warrant to be granted at Trump’s residence. This is not by any stretch his first go‑around, his first brush with the law. He’s no longer in office, and you’ve been sort of reticent about characterising him,” the journalist said.
“Me? I have been reticent? Who has been more than I? Okay,” she responded, prompting some chuckles from the group.
“Was this President a crook?” the reporter asked.
“A crook? Why don’t we take your question?” Ms Pelosi said, going back to the other reporter to laughter in the room.
Earlier in the press conference, Ms Pelosi said, “all this information as it is coming across, we’ll know more later, is highly classified. Well above top secret. It is getting higher than top secret”.
“It's about our national security as we are told, and we'll see how deeply it goes into that,” she added. “So I think our concern is always to protect and defend.”
“I don't know any more than is in the public domain, everybody's holding it very tightly,” Ms Pelosi noted, but added that “if the nature of these documents is what it appears to be, this is very serious”.
She said she wasn’t making any plans for congressional investigations into the matter.
“You would think that there would be an adult in the Republican room that would say ‘just calm down, see what the facts are’ … instead of instigating assaults on law enforcement,” Ms Pelosi said.
