ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott defended her contentious exchange with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that went viral last week, saying that it's part of the freedom of the press.
ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott defended her contentious exchange with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that went viral last week, saying that it's part of the freedom of the press.
Scott was pressed on her questioning of Pelosi about President Biden staying in the White House race during a Tuesday appearance on "The View." The video of the exchange quickly went viral after Pelosi snapped at Scott over her questioning, at one point saying, "Am I speaking English to you?"
Rachel Scott Defends Her Controversial Exchange With Nancy Pelosi
Scott told "The View" co-hosts that she believes her questioning was fair and that Pelosi did answer her question, even though she said she didn't want to take questions in the hallway.
"My job is always to be respectful, first and foremost, but always to ask tough questions, and lawmakers may not always like those questions," Scott said. "They don’t have to answer them, but I’ll just keep asking them anyway."
Rachel Scott Defends Her Controversial Exchange With Nancy Pelosi
"The View" co-host Joy Behar responded to Scott and argued that Pelosi did answer her question.
"She did say that she believes that President Biden can actually win the election … even though she said she didn’t want to take questions in the hallway," Scott said. "After I asked that question, she answered, which led to a follow-up, and then you saw what happened from there."
Rachel Scott Defends Her Controversial Exchange With Nancy Pelosi
Scott also recounted her experience reporting on the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, where the former president survived an assassination attempt.
"It’s something that I’m still processing right now, 72 hours later," Scott said. "All of the sudden you just hear these popping sounds, pop, pop, pop, pop. It’s almost like you thought it was a firecracker or something and then everyone in the crowd started screaming, started yelling, ‘shots fired, get down, get down.' I encouraged my colleague next to me from CBS to get down on the ground. My security yanked me down off the press riser and that's when we took cover."
Scott said she was shielded by an NBC colleague, Jake Traylor, during the shooting.
"There’s so many things that go through your head, right? It maybe was only a couple of seconds, but it felt like time really slowed down, and you start playing this ‘what if’ game, what if there’s a gunman on the loose?" Scott said.
Scott said she is grateful to Traylor and her security team for protecting her during the shooting.
"I’m so grateful to them," Scott said. "I’m so grateful to be alive."
