Pelosi calls for family 'intervention' with Trump

Image copyrightMark Wilson/Getty imagesImage caption

Speaker Pelosi said she is concerned for the President Trump's well being and that of the country

The US House of Representatives' Democratic leader has said President Donald Trump's family should stage an “intervention” with him.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi also said she was concerned for the president's well-being, a day after he abruptly cut short a meeting with her.

The top Democrat described Mr Trump's behaviour as a “temper tantrum”, saying he pounded the table before leaving.

It represented a new low in relations between the White House and Democrats.

“I pray for the President of the United States,” Mrs Pelosi said on Thursday.

In a response to a question at her weekly press briefing, Mrs Pelosi said she was concerned for the well-being of the president “and the well-being of the United States of America”.

“I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.”

Ms Pelosi's attack was the latest episode an increasingly fraught battle of wills between her and the Republican president.

• The mental rigours of being US president

• Trump hits back at Democratic 'cover-up' claims

• Pelosi accuses attorney general of lying

On Wednesday, Mr Trump, Mrs Pelosi and her Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer, were due to discuss spending on ageing US roads and bridges, a rare possible area of agreement with the White House.

But Mr Trump ended the meeting after barely five minutes.

Almost immediately afterwards, the president appeared in the Rose Garden to declare that he was ending all bipartisan co-operation with Democrats until they stopped their “phoney investigations”.

Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

In a letter to her House colleagues, Nancy Pelosi said: “President Trump had a temper tantrum for us all to see.” This is not true. I was purposely very polite and calm, much as I was minutes later with the press in the Rose Garden. Can be easily proven. It is all such a lie!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2019

Report

End of Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

The president is fighting an onslaught of congressional inquiries from Democrats, ignoring subpoenas, withholding documents and blocking testimony by current and ex-advisers.

As rank-and-file Democrats call for Mr Trump's impeachment, the House speaker continued to warned against such a move, arguing that the president was goading her party to attempt to remove him from office.

“The White House is just crying out for impeachment, that's why he flipped yesterday,” Ms Pelosi said.

“Impeachment is a very divisive place to go.”