Everyone says something stupid from time to time.

The difference with politicians is that their stupid statements tend to be quoted in the press. Because of America’s current extreme partisanship, Republicans tend to defend the stupid statements of GOP politicians and Democrats tend to defend the stupid statements of Democratic politicians.

Wednesday's outstanding stupid statement by a Democratic politician was Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s public pronouncement in Taiwan that the leaders of mainland China “made a big fuss because I’m the speaker, I guess. I don’t know if that was a reason or an excuse. Because they didn’t say anything when the men came.”

THAT IS A FALSE STATEMENT.

She neglected to mention that this is only the second time that a Speaker of the House of Representatives has visited Taiwan. The first time, when Newt Gingrich visited Taiwan in 1997 in his official capacity as Speaker of the House, he publicly stated that “the United States would ‘defend Taiwan’ if China used force to reunite with the island."

The Chinese government did indeed say something in response:

"China, for its part, assailed his ‘indiscreet remarks’ and warned Washington to keep out of Beijing’s internal affairs… In Beijing, responding for the first time to Gingrich’s statement on Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofand said, ‘We don’t need any foreigner making indiscreet remarks on this question.’” WaPo, April 2, 1997

https://www.proquest.com/docview/408308362/fulltext/8BC8CEE063674C16PQ/85