'Do me a favor. Do you paint houses too? What is this?' Nancy Pelosi quotes from The Irishman's use of Mafia slang for carrying out hit jobs as she attacks Donald Trump in final House speech on impeachment
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likened President Trump's lingo to that used by mobsters during her closing House impeachment floor speech, quoting the new mafia flick 'The Irishman.'
'Do me a favor?' Pelosi said, quoting - with a significant change of word - the president in his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 'Do you paint houses too? What is this? Do me a favor?' she asked.
The president in fact said: 'I want you to do us a favor, though.' He has claimed the 'us' referred to the United States, not to him.
In the Martin Scorsese film, Al Pacino's Jimmy Hoffa asked the question to Robert De Niro's character Frank Sheeran, using it as code to ask whether he killed people.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likened President Trump's lingo to that of the mobsters in the Netflix hit 'The Irishman'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quoted a scene from 'The Irishman' in which Robert De Niro's (picture) character is asked 'I heard you paint houses'
The question was asked by Al Pacino's (pictured) Jimmy Hoffa, who wanted to know if De Niro would act as a contract killer
Trump had asked for a 'favor' during his infamous July 25 call with the Ukrainian leader that sparked the whistleblower complaint that eventually led to the president's impeachment.
Pelosi showed off her pop culture prowess during a floor speech directly before the House voted on approving impeachment managers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi showed her pop culture prowess Wednesday by quoting 'The Irishman' on the House floor
Wednesday morning she had announced that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff would lead the effort, along with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler.
The other impeachment managers included four other members of the Judiciary Committee: Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Zoe Lofgren, Val Demings and Sylvia Garcia. She also picked Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The House then voted 228 to 193 to affirm those positions, the last procedural step before turning the two articles over to the Senate.
Later Wednesday, Pelosi and her seven managers will hold an Engrossment Ceremony.
The two articles of impeachment werethen physically walked across the Capitol Building to the Senate side.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he expected Trump's Senate impeachment trial to begin Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Throughout the impeachment inquiry, Trump and his allies have excused the president's request for a 'favor.'
In December the president tweeted, 'When I said, in my phone call to the President of Ukraine, "I would like you to do US a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it." With the word "us" I am referring to the United States, our Country.'
Democrats believe the directive was for Trump's own political gain, as he was encouraging Zelensky to announce an investigation into Joe Biden - a top 2020 rival - and his son Hunter, while holding up $400 million in military aid Congress approved to go to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
