Pelosi's comments on Trump's 'racist' comments ruled out of order, after floor fight erupts

Escalating tensions on Capitol Hill erupted into a floor fight in the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke in favor of a proposed resolution condemning "racist" comments by President Trump -- and Pelosi's words were eventually ruled out of order by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat.

The House then started a vote on whether to strike Pelosi's words from the record, and is expected to vote afterward on whether to ban her from speaking on the House floor for the rest of the day.

The dramatic episode began when Pelosi's prepared remarks turned personal, and Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins rose to challenge her and demand that her words be "taken down." The extraordinary rebuke was the first of its kind involving a member of Congress and a speaker of the House in decades.

The scene then became even more bizarre when the chair, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told representatives after a lengthy huddle that he was trying to make a fair ruling as to whether Pelosi had broken House rules, but people weren’t cooperating.

Cleaver simply declared, "I abandon the chair," and left -- a moment with no apparent precedent in modern congressional history. North Carolina Rep. G.K. Butterfield, also a Democrat, then assumed the chair.

In her prepared remarks, Pelosi spoke in frank and unsparing terms about Trump's comments on Twitter over the weekend.

"There is no place anywhere for the president's words, which are not only divisive, but dangerous -- and have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color," Pelosi, D-Calif., said. "It's so sad because you would think that there would be a given that we would universally, in this body, just say, 'Of course. Of course.'"

Pelosi's comments on Trump's 'racist' comments ruled out of order, after floor fight erupts