Pelosi takes offence at question about whether she hates Trump

Washington: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took offence at a reporter's question about whether she hates President Donald Trump, a situation that the president took advantage of to mock her response.

On Thursday, when Pelosi was just leaving her regular weekly press conference a reporter asked her if she hated the president and if that was the reason behind the impeachment investigation launched by Democratic lawmakers against Trump.

Pelosi stopped a few steps from the door to the room, turned and responded "I don't hate anybody. I was raised in a Catholic house. We don't hate anybody - not anybody in the world. So don't accuse me of that."

Then she returned to the podium to continue her remarks, Efe news reported.

"I think the president is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence," Pelosi said, adding "I think he is cruel when he doesn't deal with helping our 'Dreamers.' I think he's in denial about the climate crisis. However, that is about the election. Take it up in the election."

"This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the president's violation of his oath of office," she went on to say.

"As a Catholic, I resent you using the word 'hate' in a sentence that addresses me," she added, visibly incensed. "I don't hate anyone. I was raised in a way that is a heart full of love and always pray for the president. And I still pray for the president. I pray for the president all the time. So don't mess with me when it comes to words like that."

Shortly thereafter, Trump reacted on Twitter by saying that Pelosi had just had a "nervous fit" suggesting that it came upon her because she can't accept the White House's successes.

"Nancy Pelosi just had a nervous fit," the president tweeted. "She hates that we will soon have 182 great new judges and sooo much more. Stock Market and employment records. She says she 'prays for the President.' I don't believe her, not even close. Help the homeless in your district Nancy. USMCA?"

His last reference was to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Trump ordered negotiated to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement but which it still awaiting ratification in Congress.

Earlier on Thursday, Pelosi had asked lawmakers to begin drafting articles of impeachment against Trump to open formal impeachment proceedings over his pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter for allegedly corrupt activities in that country.