House speaker Nancy Pelosi recapped Wednesday’s tumultuous White house showdown with President trump on Syria, saying she told him that his troop withdrawal was a gift to Vladimir Putin and asked him about Saudi aid before trump had what she called a Crisis.

I also pointed out to the President that I had concerns that all roads seemed to lead to Putin. The Russians have been trying unsuccessfully to get their hands on the middle East, and now the President has given them an opportunity with the Kurds reaching out to them for support in Syria, she told reporters at a news conference on Capitol hill on Thursday.

Then the President said, ” Well, the reason I’m taking troops out of Syria is because I promised during the campaign to bring the troops home. My question to him was Saudi Arabia at home? Why are our troops going to Saudi Arabia if you promised to bring them home? Pelosi continued, referring to trump’s move to deploy 1,000 troops to the monarchy, a key us regional ally.

She then said the President became increasingly agitated as she pursued her line of questioning.

He said, ” Well, Saudi Arabs are paying for it. Really, were putting our troops at risk to Saudi Arabia because they are paying? It just doesn’t add up. But what he did was cause a crisis on the part of the President because he was unhappy with these issues, Pelosi argued.

Trump, she added, was not even interested in holding the meeting, which was organized by the White house.

And it was unfortunate, because we were invited to a meeting. The President started the meeting by saying I don’t know who asked for this meeting, I didn’t ask, and was like, well, let’s continue anyway. And we hoped our real mission was to find out what the plan was, she said.

Senator Chuck Schumer has begun to pressure the President on what the administration plans for Syria and Turkey in the future, Pelosi said.

Donald J. TrumpThe Washington Post/Getty Images

Trump responded that my plan is to protect America, she said, adding that she responded: That’s the goal. It is not a plan.

The President then unleashed a barrage of insults directed at the speaker, calling her a third-class politician, and Pelosi, Schumer and majority leader Steny Hoyer then left the room.

Trump later tweeted a photo of Pelosi standing up and pointing at him as he stayed put, and claimed that it was she who was affected by the crisis.

Pelosi posted the photo on her Facebook and Twitter pages.

She also defended efforts to impeach her parties, saying it was about the rule of law, not electoral politics.

I keep telling people to impeach about the truth and the Constitution of the United States. Any other issues that you have disapproval of the way the President has dealt with Syria, regardless of the subject matter, reluctance and cowardice to do something about armed violence, brutality of not wanting to help our dreamers and transgender people, denial about the climate crisis we face, the list goes on, she said.

Here about the election. This has nothing to do with what is happening in terms of our oath to protect and defend the Constitution.

Trump has criticized the impeachment process as a witch hunt and Scam by Democrats because they know they can’t beat him at the ballot box.