Nancy Pelosi makes graphic hand gesture while describing McCarthy’s predicament

‘Either Anderson Cooper has gotten a lot better about keeping a straight face, or he didn’t realize what she was doing with her hand,’ social media user says of CNN anchor

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi used a graphic hand gesture to symbolise something being slowly crushed when speaking about Kevin McCarthy’s “incredibly shrinking speakership”.

The San Francisco Democrat appeared on CNN on Wednesday night, speaking to Anderson Cooper, slamming her successor for opening an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

She said the probe was launched as part of a deal with the far-right flank of the House Republicans pushing Mr McCarthy to give in to their demands or risk losing the speakership.

“You have to impeach the president or else we’re going to vacate the chair of speaker. You have to shut down government or else we’re going to vacate the chair of speaker,” she said. “This is not responsible governance, but it’s the chaos on the Republican side.”

Cooper asked if Mr McCarthy had put himself in an “impossible situation”.

“Yeah, I think it’s an incredibly shrinking speakership,” she said as she used her hand to seemingly symbolise something being crushed.

Users of X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, joined in the mockery of Mr McCarthy.

Nancy Pelosi used a graphic hand gesture to describe Kevin McCarthy’s 'incredibly shrinking speakership’ (Screenshot / X / Acyn)

“Not gonna lie, my nuts cramped when I watched her do that,” one account holder said.

“If someone spoke abt me this way I will just walk into the woods & just keep on walking until I crumbled into ash,” another added.

“Nancy has more testosterone than the entire GOP, combined,” Mary Stein wrote.

“Gonads in a vice ... wonderful imagery,” one platform user said.

“Either Anderson Cooper has gotten a lot better about keeping a straight face, or he didn’t realize what she was doing with her hand,” another added.