Nancy Pelosi ripped up Donald Trump's State of the Union speech on live television – right behind his back – and called it "the courteous thing to do."
Now Kevin McCarthy is pulling back the curtain on what she was doing when the cameras were off.
What McCarthy says Pelosi screamed directly at him is something she never wanted leaving that room.
Pelosi Told McCarthy House Republicans Had No Right to Be There
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was direct on Jesse Watters Primetime. he recounted how Nancy Pelosi left no ambiguity about where he stood – she told him personally, in her own words.
"Nancy Pelosi really felt this about us," McCarthy said. "Like, we shouldn't be in the room – she would yell at me sometimes."
McCarthy described how Pelosi weaponized the Capitol's own security infrastructure to reinforce that message.
After January 6, she ordered magnetometers installed at House chamber entrances and slapped $5,000 fines on any member who bypassed them – then bypassed them herself.
Republicans flagged her walking through an unauthorized entrance on February 4, 2021, and demanded the Sergeant-at-Arms enforce her own rule.
Capitol Police confirmed no report was filed.
The rules, like the institution itself, applied to everyone except Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi Helped Write the Democrat Double Standard and Jesse Watters Just Called It Out
McCarthy was on Jesse Watters Primetime to discuss a poll graphic breaking down how each party views the other. The graphic showed a majority of conservatives see liberals as children. A majority of liberals see conservatives as savages.
McCarthy said the graphic captured something he lived every day as Minority Leader.
He wasn't describing a fringe position inside the Democrat caucus. He was describing the Speaker of the House – at the time, second in line to the Presidency behind the Vice President – screaming at the leader of the opposing party that he had no right to be in the room.
This is the woman the mainstream media spent four years treating as a stateswoman. The one they praised for her precision and institutional knowledge. The one Jake Tapper invited onto CNN to lecture Republicans about decorum – while conveniently forgetting she tore up a presidential address on national television.
Pelosi's contempt wasn't limited to floor theatrics. She made clear, through her words and her security apparatus, that she viewed Republican presence in the building as an offense.
Pelosi Installed the Magnetometers Then Walked Around Them
The magnetometer episode is the cleanest window into how Democrats exercise power.
Pelosi installed the metal detectors over Republican objections, threatened members with $10,000 fines for a second offense, and had the House vote to make compliance mandatory.
She told the press the chamber had to be kept safe. Then she walked through the side entrance used by disabled members to avoid screening herself.
House Republicans formally requested the fine be assessed. The Acting Sergeant-at-Arms declined to act.
Democrats write the rules. Democrats decide when to enforce them.
McCarthy noted that Republicans – even while viewing their Democrat colleagues as politically misguided – maintained enough respect to want the system to work. Democrats, starting from the top, made clear they had no interest in returning that respect.
"We had hope that they would grow up one day," McCarthy said. "But they treated us and thought of us as monsters and murderers."
Six years of that treatment produced Donald Trump's second term, a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Pelosi who no longer controls anything.
The room she said Republicans shouldn't be in is now theirs.
Sources:
- "Kevin McCarthy Claims Enraged Nancy Pelosi Would 'Yell' at Republicans That They 'Shouldn't Be in the Room,'" Mediaite, July 29, 2026.
- "Calls for Pelosi to Pay Fine She Imposed After Bypassing Metal Detector Intensify," Fox News, February 6, 2021.
- "House Chamber Metal Detector Fight Puts Capitol Police in Difficult Position," Fox News, February 9, 2021.
- "Republicans Again Urge Pelosi Pay Fine, Ask Equal Enforcement of House Rules," House Administration Committee Republicans, 2021.
- "Metal Detectors Removed From Outside the House Chamber," The Hill, January 3, 2023.