Jim Cramer, the CNBC pundit, apologized this week for calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “crazy Nancy” during an interview.
Cramer was interviewing Pelosi on Tuesday on a variety of issues, including a potential stimulus package.
“What deal can we have, crazy Nancy?” Cramer said during the interview. He then caught himself.
“That was the president, I have such reverence for the office I would never use that term,” he said, referring to one of President Donald Trump’s nicknames for the House speaker.
“But you just did,” Pelosi shot back in the interview.
“You know what I mean, the reverence I have for the office is so great that I think it’s a travesty to ever call, look, you’re,” Cramer remarked.
Pelosi said, “I know what you mean,” before criticizing Trump for giving her the moniker.
Later, Cramer addressed the controversy on his show.
He added: “As I said immediately after the comment, I want to make it clear that I have an incredible amount of respect for both the Speaker and, of course, the office she holds.”
Cramer then attempted to defend himself on Twitter.
“It disgusts me that she is called ‘crazy Nancy.’ She has spent her whole life in public services. My critics didn’t listen to why i mentioned it-because it is horrifying,” Cramer wrote on Twitter. “Did anyone bother to listen to the whole interview? It was about how horrendous it is that the president calls Speaker Pelosi Crazy Nancy. It is so unfortunate and ill-advised. The people criticizing me must not have realized the point! NEVER should she be called that.”