Nancy Pelosi Calls Mitch McConnell's Trump Endorsement 'Very, Very Sad'

The past four decades have seen House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnells parallel rise in their respective parties leadership on each side of the Capitol.

So when Pelosi was asked during a Friday interview with MSNBC to comment on McConnells recent endorsement of former President Donald Trump , she reflected on that history, and summed up McConnells decision as really very, very sad.

Sometimes we agreed, sometimes we didnt, she began, offering praise for McConnells support for aid to Ukraine. The sad part of it is, Mitch McConnell knows full well that the president was guilty of a crime on Jan. 6.

So for him to know how bad the presidents predecessor was on all of this, and then come to the conclusion that he would endorse him when we thought he was going to convict him the word was, he was close to conviction, and now hes endorsing its really very, very sad, Pelosi said.

And its a sad conclusion to a career of strategic I mean, again, mostly we didnt agree, but I was respectful of the view that he brought forth and how we could work together, she went on. Its really, in my view, a sad professional tragedy that he had to come around. Why did he do such a thing? Perhaps hell explain to the world.

McConnell announced Wednesday that he would throw his support behind Trump after years of tensions between the two men, which were enflamed by Trumps attempts to overturn the 2020 election after his loss to Joe Biden .

McConnell once called Trump morally responsible for the deadly Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, and said it was a disgraceful dereliction of duty for him to refuse to lift a finger to help Congress while it was under attack. The two men have reportedly not spoken  in three years.

Yet McConnell managed to put all that behind him this week. 

It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States, the minority leader said in a statement. It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support.

Both McConnell, 82, and Pelosi, 83, are winding down their time in Washington. Pelosi stepped down as House speaker last year, although she is running for another term in Congress as Democrats seek to take control of the House. McConnell, meanwhile, has pledged to serve out the remaining three years of his current term, but said he plans to step down from his leadership role after this Novembers election.