Nancy Pelosi Goes Viral With 'Tic-Tac-Toe' Speech

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went viral on Wednesday for using the phrase "tic-tac-toe" in a speech about TikTok.

While speaking on the House floor, the Democratic representative from California delivered remarks about new legislation that seeks to have ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, divest the popular app or face a ban in the United States.

"This is not an attempt to ban TikTok, it's an attempt to make TikTok better," Pelosi said. "Tic-tac-toe, a winner." Following her speech, social media users responded with questions and jokes.

"Nancy pelosi soft-launching her new social media video app 'Tic-Tac-Toe,'" user @tony_magoni wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

X user @hrrcvlt wrote: "how nancy pelosi felt after saying 'tic tac toe a WINNER," while sharing a TikTok meme.

And X user @oliviuuuuhh said: "i think nancy pelosi might be confusing tiktok w a game she used to play as a child where she'd scribble onto stone."

Newsweek reached out to Pelosi's press secretary via email for comment.

The context:

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed legislation proposed by members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), calling on TikTok to divest or face a ban from app stores throughout the U.S.

The House of Representatives voted 352-65 to pass the legislation, with 197 Republicans voting for it.

What we know:

According to a press release from the House Select Committee on the CCP, the bill will also allow the president to designate certain applications as "social media applications that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary—per Title 10—and pose a national security risk."

Pelosi was one of the House members to vote in favor of passing the legislation and said during her speech that the application is being controlled by the Chinese government.

Views:

Some Republicans opposed the legislation, such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

"This bill would open Pandora's box and create a slippery slope for future government censorship of Americans and our precious First Amendment," Greene wrote on X.

Former President Donald Trump also expressed opposition to banning the application, saying "There's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don't like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media."

What's next:

The bill will now go to the Senate for a vote, although it's unclear if the Senate will have enough votes to pass it. President Joe Biden said this week that he will sign the legislation if passed by the Senate.

Update 3/13/24, 1:47 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.

Update 3/13/24, 2:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.