I can’t think of two people less likely to be at the same party than country singer John Rich and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Rich, one half of duo Big & Rich, is an outspoken conservative Republican who isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers and make his opinions known. So obviously he doesn’t have much in common with the 18-term Congresswoman from California.
So you just know that things got interesting when they happened to find themselves at the same get-together.
John Rich told the story in an interview awhile back, but it’s recently started going viral again on TikTok, of how he and Pelosi ended up discussing firearms at Tony Bennett’s birthday party.
According to Rich, he was invited to sing at Bennett’s 85th birthday party in Beverly Hills. The event was held at the home of Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, and the guest list included names like John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Vince Vaughn and many other high-profile attendees.
And John admits that he couldn’t have been more out of place among that crowd:
“I’m looking around this backyard going, ‘I’m not supposed to be here, so I’m just going to have some fun.’
One of these things is not like the other.”
Well also on the guest list for the event was – you guessed it – Nancy Pelosi. And Rich says that when the former Speaker caught sight of him, she headed straight towards him.
“Nancy Pelosi starts making a beeline towards me. And I’ll be honest, it was frightening.”
Apparently Pelosi had no interest in exchanging pleasantries or discussing the party. The Congresswoman had something else she wanted to talk about with John Rich: Gun control.
“She walks right up to me. She doesn’t say hello.
She goes, ‘You seem like a reasonable person.’ I guess meaning for a guy in a cowboy hat and a handlebar mustache, cause otherwise you wouldn’t be at this backyard…
I said, ‘Well I appreciate that Madam Speaker.’
She goes, ‘Can I ask you a question about guns?'”
Oh, here we go.
According to Rich, an audience had surrounded them by this point, no doubt waiting to watch this conversation go down:
“Vince Vaughn is standing there and Vince leans in, Travolta’s got his arms crossed, he’s leaning in, everybody’s leaning in…
Pelosi goes, ‘Now I’m not a hunter. But I’m pretty sure that if I shot that first bullet at whatever I was hunting and I didn’t hit it, it would run away… So why does anybody need more than seven rounds?'”
Rich was ready with his response:
“I held up my cell phone and I said, ‘Well Madam Speaker, right now back in Nashville, Tennessee I have a wife and I got a 3-year old son and a 5-year old son, and we live right in the middle of town.
If she called my phone right now and said, ‘John, I hear footsteps coming up the stairs,’ would you advise me to tell my wife to grab the one with seven rounds or the one with 30 rounds?'”
And according to John, Pelosi was baffled by that answer:
“Her eyes kinda got big and she said, ‘Is that the way you look at that?’
I said, ‘Yes ma’am.’
She goes, ‘Well it was nice to meet you.’ And just walked off. But for a brief moment, this lightbulb pops.
First of all I believe they know that anyway. That’s why they have armed guards. But I was able to, dead in her eye, one time, say ‘It’s to protect our families.’
Of course you don’t need 30 rounds to hunt a deer. There’s nothing in the Second Amendment about hunting. It’s all about defense.”
I have a feeling these two probably won’t be at the same party again any time soon…
@the_great_pappy Replying to @Profile ♬ original sound – Just_Call_Me_Sir
