House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a surprise appearance onstage at a music festival on Saturday night and was seemingly booed by some in attendance.
Pelosi, a California Democrat, appeared at the Global Citizen music festival in New York City. The festival has been organized in the city annually since 2012 by the Global Poverty Project with the goal of helping end extreme poverty in many parts of the world. This year's festival featured performances from Metallica, Mariah Carey, and the Jonas Brothers.
Pelosi was called up onstage on Friday night by actor, musician, and activist Priyanka Chopra. As she took the stage and discussed efforts to combat climate change, many members of the audience began to boo her. One user claiming to be in attendance shared a video on Twitter to controversial "alt-right" figure, Jack Posobiec. As of Sunday afternoon, the clip had been viewed over 167,000 times.
Pelosi reportedly discussed efforts being made in Congress to combat carbon emissions during her time onstage. The House Speaker was later photographed alongside Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich with her husband, Paul Pelosi. This marked one of the few public outings that the couple has made since the latter was arrested in May for drunk driving in California's Napa Valley.
"As Speaker of the House, I am here to thank you for your dazzling advocacy, entrepreneurial thinking, and determination as global citizens," Pelosi said amid the jeers from some in the crowd. "It's thanks to your help that the United States recently enacted historic climate legislation, which will be a game changer. It will slash carbon pollution by 40 percent by 2030, it will give a historic, a historic $370 billion to fight the climate crisis."
"It's Nancy Pelosi," one bewildered attendee said while recording the appearance. "Why is everyone booing?"
While it is unclear based on the available footage why the crowd was booing Pelosi, given the festival's goals of tackling poverty and climate change, the jeers could reflect the feelings of dissatisfaction with Pelosi from within her own party. During an appearance earlier this month on CNN's New Day, Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said that should the Democrats keep the House in the midterms, someone new should replace Pelosi as Speaker.
"I have always said, I think it's time we have new leadership," the congresswoman said. "I think it's time, frankly, that some Midwesterners get into leadership. We have a lot of New York and California; I'd like to see more diversity in leadership there. I have made a commitment to my district—I stick to that commitment."
Newsweek reached out to Pelosi's office for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
