(CNSNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she and other Democrats walked out of a White House meeting on Syria after President Trump had what she called a "meltdown."
Later, Pelosi suggested at a news conference that Trump is mentally unwell, although she denied that's what she meant.
The White House meeting happened right after the House voted 354-60 on a resolution disapproving Trump's actions in Syria -- and after Democrats provoked him by saying "all roads lead to Putin."
"He just couldn't handle it," Pelosi said. "He just couldn't handle it, so he kind of engaged in a meltdown."
Pelosi called it "very sad."
"What's really sad about it is--is I pray for the president all the time and I tell him that. I pray for his safety and that of his family. I think now we have to pray for his health. This was a very serious meltdown on the part of the President. I was expressed my appreciation for what our troops have done in Syria and by all accounts from the generals, they have just really done the job very well; that he's now pulling out."
A reporter asked Pelosi, "Are you suggesting that he's mentally unwell in any way?"
"I'm not talking about mentally," Pelosi responded. "I'm just talking about handling--just handling the truth."
Did Democrats deliberately provoke Trump?
Pelosi said Trump grew angry after she expressed concern that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria is giving Russia a "foothold in the Middle East."
Pelosi said she told Trump that Democrats have concerns "about all roads leading to Putin, whether it's a foothold in the Middle East or whether it's placing a doubt on military assistance to the Ukraine, which is to benefit of Putin. It is placing a doubt our commitment to NATO, Article 5, which again, all roads lead to Putin, the list goes on and on. That seems to have angered the President," she said.
It is no surprise that those topics, in conjunction with the continuing three-year Democrat effort to impeach Trump, would anger the man; and it's no surprise that Democrat leaders walked out (while some rank-and-file Democrats remained at the meeting).
A reporter asked Pelosi if she thinks future meetings with the president are unnecessary, given the way those meetings tend to go.
Pelosi complained that Trump "immediately started off by saying that we asked for the meeting, which we had not. But you know, that's--that's a minor thing. It was not a particularly hospitable opening to the meeting, but who cares. Who cares.
"What matters is the President made a very dangerous decision when it came to Syria and--and the Turks and the Kurds, and not much understanding of what was at risk there. Three hundred and fifty-four members of the House concurred that they ... opposed the president's decision. I think it rattled him," Pelosi said.
Pelosi said Trump called her a "third-grade" politician. (Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump called her a "third-rate" politician.)
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who joined Pelosi at the podium, said, "There were a number of things that the president said which were obviously meant to be derogatory towards the Democrats generally and President Obama in particular that were not conducive to any sort of rational, reasonable discussion. We got a crisis that confronts the country of the President's making. So, the meeting went downhill relatively quickly, unfortunately from our perspective."
Pelosi told reporters:
I will close by saying this: I think it is a very sad commentary on the President of the United States that he doesn't have enough confidence in what he is doing to listen to other points of view, especially the overwhelming vote of the House of Representatives, and have some level of respect for that.
And, again, it shook him up, melted him down and he behaved accordingly.
Does that mean we can't have future meetings? No. Just depends on the subject, I guess. Does it mean we can't pass things that working together? If we can, we will because it is a collateral benefit for him will never be a determinant for us to do what is right for the American people. But there has to be some level of values of calmness, of patriotism, of love of our country and our system and not a personal invective because he didn't like the way a vote went on any given day...
President Trump responded to Pelosi in kind via Twitter, writing: "Nancy Pelosi needs help fast! There is either something wrong with her “upstairs,” or she just plain doesn’t like our great Country. She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!"