Nancy Pelosi explains Apple Watch break at State of the Union

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Nancy Pelosi Apple Watch
To be fair, we looked at ours a few times, too. Those alerts really want our attention.
Photo: PBS NewsHour (via YouTube)

It seems that Nancy Pelosi had a bit of distraction during the President’s speech Tuesday.

During last night’s State of the Union, President Obama reflected on his time in office and outlined his hopes and visions for the country’s future. It was a conversational, grounded, and relatable address that covered the outgoing leader’s successes and even some regrets.

But at one point, cameras captured the former Speaker of the House tapping away on her wearable.

The “incident” happened about 45 minutes in, while Obama was talking about the tone of current political discourse and its effect on citizens. The view switches to Pelosi looking at her Apple Watch and tapping the screen twice before returning her attention to the President. And while it didn’t make the best impression, she was actually addressing something that owners of the device struggle with daily.

“My watch was telling me to stand up for a minute,” Pelosi told NBC News.

If you have not stood and moved around for at least a minute out of every hour, the Apple Watch will send you a reminder to do so. It’s a feature that’s not quite useless enough to turn off completely, although you can now mute those alerts for a day. Apparently, Pelosi didn’t know about either of those features.

“I didn’t know that that was part of the advantage of having such a watch,” Pelosi said, adding, “What I was trying to see was, if you stand up to applaud, and you sit down, and then you stand up to applaud again — if it was cumulative!”

The State of the Union is known for its constant breaks for standing ovations, typically from the President’s own party.

Pelosi isn’t the only politician learning new and exciting things from her Apple Watch this week. Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush discovered at the worst possible moment that you can answer calls on the device.

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