Politics

Pelosi: Rush showed ‘courage’ by wearing hoodie on House floor

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush “deserves a great deal of credit” for showing “courage” by wearing a hooded sweatshirt Wednesday and getting ejected from the House floor in protest of the Trayvon Martin case.

“I think that Bobby Rush deserves a great deal of credit for the courage he had to go to the floor in a hoodie knowing that he would be told he was out of order and he quickly left the floor,” Pelosi said on Capitol Hill Thursday.

“He didn’t — he wasn’t contentious about it but he made his point. He called attention to a situation in our country that needs to be addressed in a way a man in a suit and tie might not be able to do.” (RELATED: Bobby Rush in 2000: Obama a Harvard ‘educated fool’)

House Speaker John Boeher holds a different view.

“We expect all members to follow the rules and the rules make it clear that members will be on the floor in the proper business attire,” he told reporters.

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