Nancy Pelosi’s office calls out Donald Trump as a ‘twice-impeached Florida retiree’

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office has given a scathing public assessment of former President Donald Trump in an official statement following his expression of sympathy for Capitol rioters.

In a statement attributed to the Democratic speaker’s press office on Thursday, Ms Pelosi chastised Mr Trump as a “twice-impeached Florida retiree” in her official capacity as speaker.

“Twice-impeached Florida retiree – and de facto leader of the Republican Party – Donald Trump joined House Republicans today in disrespecting the Capitol Police and other law enforcement officers,” Ms Pelosi’s office in the statement.

The statement noted that such officers “valiantly defended the US Capitol on January 6th” and condemned Mr Trump for appearing to defend suspected rioters “now that they are facing legal consequences for their actions”.

Mr Trump on Wednesday said he believed that many of those facing charges for their alleged involvement in the 6 January insurrection “are being treated unbelievably unfairly”.

“When you look at people in prison and nothing happens to Antifa and they burned down cities and killed people,” the former president said.

Mr Trump became the first president to have been impeached twice during his time in office, with the second trial alleging he incited his supporters to march on the US Capitol on 6 January.

Since Mr Trump left office he has mostly been residing in his Mar-A-Lago club in Florida, with reports claiming he and his wife are leading an “old-fashioned club life” in the months since.

This week Mr Trump has once again stirred up controversy on Capitol Hill after he announced he would be suing three of the country’s biggest tech companies.

The former president’s vendetta against Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube comes after they banned him for “inciting violence” following the riots. Mr Trump has remained prohibited from the platforms.

The former president also made reference to the shooting of rioter and US Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who some conservatives have come to paint as a patriotic martyr.

“But the person that shot Ashli Babbitt, boom, right through the head, just boom, there was no reason for that,” Mr Trump said.

He added: “And why isn’t that person being opened up, and why isn’t that being studied? They’ve already written it off. They said that case is closed.”

The former president’s reference to Ms Babbitt being shot “right through the head” is inaccurate. The Department of Justice (DOJ) found Babbitt had been shot in the left shoulder.

Ms Babbitt was part of the mob of pro-Trump rioters that stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election result following a Save America rally hosted by Mr Trump.

The DOJ ruled that Ms Babbitt had entered the Capitol with rioters and was forcing her way through a broken glass door near the Speaker’s Lobby, prompting an officer to fire a single round.

The US Attorney’s Office and DOJ closed the investigation into the matter in April, ruling they would not pursue criminal charges against the US Capitol Police officer who shot her.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested 500 people in connection to the riots, with attendees charged on a variety of counts including vandalisation, obstruction of proceedings and assault of police officers.

Footage released by the FBI has shown the extent of the violent assaults on officers by some Trump supporters. Five people died as a result of the violence at the Capitol, including one Capitol police officer and Ms Babbitt.