Nancy Pelosi Defends Altered Photo Showing Congresswomen On Capitol Steps

Despite the controversy it has caused, Nancy Pelosi still defends an altered picture of Democratic Congresswoman posted to her Flick account.

The picture, taken on the steps of the Capitol building, claimed to show the group of Democratic Congresswoman, The Associated Press reported. The only problem was that four of the women in the Democrats’ caucus couldn’t make it to the photo, so someone in Pelosi’s office had images of them digitally inserted in.

The photo made the rounds on websites and blogs as people noticed the alteration, but Pelosi still defends the altered photo.

“It was an accurate historical record of who the Democratic women of Congress are,” Pelosi told a news conference. “It also is an accurate record that it was freezing cold and our members had been waiting a long time for everyone to arrive and … had to get back into the building to greet constituents, family members, to get ready to go to the floor. It wasn’t like they had the rest of the day to stand there.”

Nancy Pelosi went a step further, praising the picture for showing women from all different backgrounds and religions.

“So we were pretty excited about it,” Pelosi said. “We got a lot of response back from the country, and one I loved was when they said, ‘Can the women in Congress hear the people cheering across the country?’ ”

Even as Pelosi defends the altered photo, she didn’t try to hide that it had been changed. The New York Times had an account of how the four Congressional members missed the photo session, and Pelosi’s office even confirmed to Poynter that four members were added digitally in the back row.