Amid the harassment allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has come to his defense, saying that these allegations aren’t “disqualifying” him from the 2020 race.

However, this contradicts her support for the Me Too movement, which she said was trying to be broken by President Trump. To support a movement that heavily emphasizes the belief that all victims of sexual assault and harassment should be heard and believed, only to turn on these victims by supporting someone who has been accused of making women uncomfortable multiple times, you begin to wonder if political leaders truly care about American citizens, women and minorities especially.

It’s performative–politicians see a movement that’s largely supported by an audience that they want votes from, and they’ll say a few things that seem in support of it, but it’s surface level. They want brownie points and a star sticker that says “Good job!”, and while some are willing to give that to them, there are also some that refuse to do so.

We should not pick and choose who applies to our morals. We shame hypocrites yet get offended when our own hypocrisy is exposed. This happens to all of us, even politicians, but the thing about politicians is that they have teams of people who are tasked with damage control the moment their boss makes a hot take.

We may never truly know if their apologies and explanations are sincere, since we never know if they truly came up with it or made someone do it for them. They’ll say anything to secure their position and future votes, which essentially means appealing to the largest crowd that they know will benefit them.

This hypocrisy displayed by Pelosi only strengthens the belief that you must always question what politicians tell you. How are we supposed to put faith in someone in such a high position in our government who can’t keep their own beliefs straight? It’s disrespectful to not just their own political party, but all Americans. It shouldn’t matter if Biden was a good guy to a few others–these accusations should be taken seriously and looked into thoroughly.

It’s embarrassing to see Pelosi, someone who had previously been applauded by the Me Too movement, brush victims aside in favor of defending someone who has done wrong.