Pelosi Bans Naval Academy Grad from Watching His Mother Sworn In to Congress: Report
So much for “unity.”
Newly elected New York Rep. Claudia Tenney and her family have waited three months since the November election for Tenney to finally be sworn-in to the seat she won.
On Thursday, according to The Daily Caller, Tenney’s son, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, was not allowed to attend the ceremony.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer spread the word on social media Thursday morning.
On January 3rd, every member of the 117th Congress was permitted to have a family member witness the swearing in in the House gallery. Today @speakerpelosi’s staff denied the request for @claudiatenney’s son, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, to be in the gallery.
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) February 11, 2021
“I guess he’s considered a risk,” Tenney told The Daily Caller, confirming Spicer’s post.
Sure he must be. He’s the son of a Republican, after all. According to Tenney’s campaign biography page, her son, Trey Cleary, is a 2013 graduate of the Naval Academy who is now a captain in the United States Marines.
Most sane Americans would consider that the kind of man you’d trust your life to — considering the country is entrusting its existence to him and to men and women like him and has been for more than 200 years now.
But apparently “most sane Americans” doesn’t include Nancy Pelosi or her staff. Tenney told The Daily Caller she was informed her son would not be allowed to watch from the gallery during “several exchanges” through “text from staff and in person.”
In a way, it’s not surprising. The Democratic Party has made no secret of the fact that it distrusts the military — just look at the insulting “vetting” process for the National Guard that took place before the swearing-in of President Joe Biden on Jan. 20.
But it is surprising that that kind of distrust would be placed on such a personal level. Tenney, after all, is not a newcomer to Congress.
She was first elected in 2016, then lost to Democrat Anthony Brindisi in the 2018 midterms. In the November rematch, she defeated Brindisi by a razor-thin 109 votes out of more than 300,000 votes cast in the Empire State’s 22nd Congressional District, according to The New York Times.
That means she’s at least somewhat of a known quantity. And if her son were the kind of military officer liberals like to pretend are hiding under every bed — “white supremacist,” dangerous to democracy, bent on overthrowing the government they’ve sworn to protect — it’s a good chance Capitol security would know about it. (It’s a better chance the Brindisi campaign would have been shouting it from the rooftops well before November’s vote.)
All of which makes this look like an exercise in typical Pelosi pettiness rather than any actual security measure. (Considering this is the Nancy Pelosi who tore up then-President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address a year ago, that kind of vindictiveness isn’t exactly out of character.)
The Daily Caller reported that Pelosi’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The Western Journal also contacted Pelosi’s office Thursday afternoon, but did not receive a response before publication.
As ugly as Pelosi’s reported action was, some of the social media responses to Spicer’s Twitter post were even worse, defending an apparently spiteful, maliciously childish, unnecessary bit of unpleasantness as somehow justifiable in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
This is typical of the rubbish.
That’s what happens after an insurrection
— Patricia allen (@Eamon0303) February 11, 2021
On January 3rd we didn’t know how homicidal the Republican party was.
— Steve (@ShellbackSteve) February 11, 2021
Fortunately, not everyone is so blinkered.
No class Nancy
— Michael (@JrMike44) February 11, 2021
Punitive response of a 5 year old on the part of Pelosi attempting to demonstrate power and control
— Dr. Ziriki Asuhbab (@Dr_Ziriki) February 11, 2021
Dems are really, really mad that they could not steal her seat.
They tried for 3 months!Nancy #Pelosi would not allow Republican New York Rep. Claudia Tenney to have her son present in the gallery for her swearing-in Thursday,#ClaudiaTenney @ClaudiaTenney #NY22 @SpeakerPelosi
— Linda Marie Lovison (@lilo623) February 11, 2021
Return to norms and stuff
— Jim Muessig (@JimMuessig) February 11, 2021
In the years since Donald Trump upended American politics by destroying the planned coronation of Hillary Clinton to the presidency, Democrats have been revealing themselves almost daily as the most bitter and spiteful politicians in the country’s history since the last time their party tried to destroy it in the 1860s.
If this is the kind of unity Democrats are pushing now, they are going to be in for a real surprise when they find out 75 million Americans aren’t buying it.
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