Newt Gingrich Outraged That Pelosi ‘Blocked’ Claudia Tenney’s Active Duty Marine Son From Attending Her Swearing-in Ceremony ‘What a Mean, Petty, Nasty Thing for the Speaker to Do’

On January 3, the opening day of the new Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and officials who implement COVID-19 protections for members, allowed for the House Gallery one guest for each freshman member being sworn in.

Unfortunately for U.S. House Rep Claudia Tenney (R-NY), it would not be until February 8 that her opponent finally conceded the race after essentially exhausting all legal options.

That Thursday, Feb. 11, Tenney was sworn in and she said she requested to have her son, a graduate of the Naval Academy and an active duty Marine, join her for the ceremony.

Pelosi, however, did not allow it and her office claimed that it was due to COVID-19 restrictions put in place by the House Sergeant at Arms and the congressional Attending Physician.

Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted the move in a tweet yesterday, and said, “It’s hard to believe that Speaker Pelosi blocked Congresswoman Tenney from having her son, an Annapolis graduate currently on active duty in the military, sit up in the gallery while his mother was being sworn in.”

“What a mean, petty, nasty thing for the Speaker to do,” Gingrich added.

<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It’s hard to believe that Speaker Pelosi blocked Congresswoman Tenney from having her son, an Annapolis graduate currently on active duty in the military, sit up in the gallery while his mother was being sworn in. What a mean, petty, nasty thing for the Speaker to do.</p>&mdash; Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) <a href="https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/1374111519416410122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>

One Twitter user responded to Gingrich by noting what Pelosi’s office had said about having him attend, to which Tenney herself replied, offering her version of what happened.

“Absolutely not true. Covid-19 restrictions were never mentioned as a reason for denying my son access. ‘Security reasons’ were cited,” Tenney explained.

<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Absolutely not true. Covid-19 restrictions were never mentioned as a reason for denying my son access. &quot;Security reasons&quot; were cited.</p>&mdash; Claudia Tenney (@claudiatenney) <a href="https://twitter.com/claudiatenney/status/1374124106778574852?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>

Following the ceremony, Tenney told Fox News, “I just would have loved to have my son with me. I raised him as a single parent. We’ve been with each other, nothing greater day than his graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy, it was such an honor and now he is serving our country.”

From Fox News:

“We’ve asked repeatedly, can I just have my son in the gallery,” Tenney said, adding it was not like she requested him to be on the House floor. “There was no reason indicated.”

Tenney claimed there were “no discussion of COVID,” and added that her son “manages COVID protocols” in the marines.

It’s unclear what prompted Gingrich to issue the tweet, but clearly, Tenney still feels slighted by the move. It will be interesting to see what happens when a Democrat is sworn in after an upcoming special election.

There is an April run-off set in Louisiana that will be won by a Democrat, as well as the recent one in the same state that was won by Republican Julia Letlow.