Nancy Pelosi Slams WaPo Cuts, Don Lemon's Arrest: 'The First Amendment Is Under Siege'Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) denounced The Washington Post's staffing cuts during her speech at the annual Washington Press Club Foundation Congressional Dinner on Wednesday, warning that press freedom in the United States is "under siege.""Make no mistake, the First Amendment is under siege here at home. You know that better than anyone, each — facts are challenged, truth is distorted, and the press is treated by those in power as an enemy," Pelosi said.Pelosi criticized the arrest of independent journalist Don Lemon and the raid of Post reporter Hannah Natanson's home before blasting the decision to lay off one-third of the Post's staff.It's "part of a broader reprehensible pattern in which corporate decisions are hollowing out newsrooms across the country," she said. "When corporate interests gut local, national and international journalism, communities lose watchdogs, truth loses megaphones and democracy loses guardians.""A free press cannot fulfill its mission if it is starved of its resources," she continued. "When the newsrooms are weakened, our republic is weakened with it. Because democracy dies in darkness."The California Democrat, who is not running for reelection, warned that "America is in a crisis of conscience," taking a jab at President Donald Trump."We have a president who has crowned himself king, a Congress which has abolished itself and a Supreme Court that has gone wrong," she said.Watch her full speech here.See All UpdatesClose