WASHINGTON — With a popular Democratic president in the White House and a Democratic majority in Congress, bold Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed for major climate action in 2009 despite warnings of political backlash. .
After the House narrowly approved a bill to cut emissions after collecting Pelosi’s signatures and dealing with Democrats reluctant to corral, Pelosi said, “We’ve got a change bill that will lead us into the future.” It’s been approved,” he rejoiced.
It was a rare miscalculation. Her immediate future proved to be in the minority in the 2010 midterm elections as Democrats were overwhelmed by a climate change bill that was rejected in the Senate and a public backlash against a health care bill that was signed into law. did.
Ms. Pelosi refused to throw in the towel and stepped aside. She stayed on as leader of the defeated House Democrats, and in 2019 has re-emerged as a more actionable speaker, learning from both her failures and her successes, presiding over a period of remarkable legislative productivity. In the process, she sealed her legacy as the most powerful woman in American politics to date.
What could arguably be called the Pelosi era in Washington came to an end on Tuesday, with Ms. Pelosi stepping back to the public in the new Congress…unsolicited advice.
But her presence was at the heart of the climate, health, public works, and social legislation leading up to the signatures of two Democratic presidents, and her tenure capped by a shocking invitation to Volodymyr Zelensky. It will be felt for years in a moment. address the parliament A few days before she lost her gavel.
New leaders of both parties will find it difficult to match her achievements with political influence, regardless of their views on her policy agenda.Pelosi, first female speaker He paved a unique path.
Her leadership span was sandwiched between the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol. These two key events of hers tested her abilities but demonstrated her willingness to navigate political differences. crisis.
In between are the war in Iraq she opposed, the disastrous financial crisis she helped, the rise of the Tea Party movement that ousted her, and President Trump, whom she fought twice with impeachment, Congress and the state. There was a pandemic that threw the Confusion, and ultimately a triumphant legislative push during her first two years of Biden’s presidency. Her goals were big, but she also seemed to be obsessed with the minutiae of the vote numbers, picking out Democrats one by one until she hit the magic number of 218. , usually hid a few more right in the purse. case.
“The fact of the matter is that no other contemporary speaker, whether Republican or Democrat, has brandished a gavel with such authority and such consistent results,” said Ohio. Republican, minority leader and speaker of dedication of her official portrait last month“Let’s just say you’re a tough cookie.”
and partisan. In September 2008, when the House faced a risky vote on bank bailouts and the economy began to wobble, Pelosi linked her appeal for the bill to pass with an attack on the Republican economic policies that sparked the crisis. I was. Some Republicans have cited the tone of her attack as an excuse to oppose the package, which rocked financial markets when Republicans failed to deliver the votes promised and the bill failed to pass.
Pelosi then led members of both parties in the Bush administration and Congress to reorganize and find a bipartisan way out of the economic meltdown. Her role was captured in a moment in the now-famous West Wing of the White House. That’s when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson bent her knees and begged for Mr. Pelosi’s help.
“Mr. Hank, I didn’t know you were a Catholic,” the devout Ms. Pelosi told the imploring Mr. Paulson.
But what Pelosi sees as her greatest achievement was the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which required all her legislative skills. After all, after the death of Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Senate Democrats lost a crucial 60th vote, many preferred I had to convince House Democrats to accept a Senate bill that I felt was not and could not be changed. To emerge victorious, he had to juggle a variety of dissenting voices from both conservative and progressive Democrats.
“Nothing matched the Affordable Care Act. 10,000 families benefited better, cut costs, and had no pre-existing conditions and never had a lifetime that would jeopardize access, Ms Pelosi told reporters last December. He added that he was particularly proud of her.
Pelosi Target of Republican political blows that continue to this day contributed to violent attack on husband, Paul, Oct. Democrats went deep into the minority. Even when President Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012 and handed over the White House to Donald J. Trump, Republicans were able to put the brakes on the last few years of his administration. The man who called her “Crazy Nancy”.
After Democrats won the House in 2018, Ms Pelosi tried to return to power as chairman, but a fierce public backlash against Mr Trump helped her regain power.
From their first meeting, Pelosi showed that she doesn’t joke with Trump like many others. At her first meeting with congressional leaders at the White House in January 2017, when she falsely claimed he had won the popular vote, she bluntly corrected him on the matter. , which shows her pointing at Trump, denouncing her sympathy for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and telling Trump, “With him, all roads lead to Putin.” rice field.
Her sarcastic applause for Trump during the 2019 State of the Union address became an iconic image, and her decision to tear up his printed remarks at the end of the same address a year later, even that accusation. surpassed.
“He lied on all pages,” Pelosi said in a recent interview, explaining her voluntary decision to scrap the speech. She said she thought her speech was disrespectful to the House, especially after Trump used the opportunity to pay tribute to Rush Limbaugh, whom Pelosi called a “thug.”
“Don’t come here talking about trash and trash,” Pelosi said, explaining her thinking at the time.
In her second round as speaker, the challenge came from the left Younger, more progressive Democrats thought Pelosi was reluctant to push the legislative envelope when she proposed a Green New Deal. The more down-to-earth Nancy Pelosi wasn’t ready to go there and used her own credentials as a San Francisco liberal to carry her cards to set her apart.
At a fundraising reception in Detroit in October, Pelosi told donors that although she thanked the new members for their enthusiasm and shared their forward-thinking views, it was not a “victory message.”
“There’s been signs of that in the basement for 30 years,” she said. “But that’s not what we do now.”
Faced with a stalemate in 2021, Pelosi agreed to separate the massive tax and climate package from the bipartisan public works bill that progressives had threatened to hold hostage. The Infrastructure Bill passed and proved to be a political winner, but some of the social programs and tax benefits sought by Democrats in their failed buddies were never reinstated.
In her final months as Speaker, she oversaw bipartisan legislation that fell short of what she and other House Democrats had hoped for, but which represented real results. New provisions to lower the cost of medicines for Americans, huge spending packages including funds for Ukraine to wage war against Russian aggression. Finally, there were legal protections against same-sex marriage. Pelosi said it was a fitting climax to her career in Congress. After winning her 1987 special election, her first speech was a call to fight AIDS.
For leaders who often waste their time doing the most important tasks, there is one final task. With just a few days left to speak, she unleashed a final barrage on Trump. First, her special committee of January 6, which she created, introduce the former president to the Justice Department criminal prosecution and release a string of testimonies It shows Trump’s determination to overturn the losing 2020 election.Then on Friday, the Democratic-led Way and Means Committee Published Income Tax Return What Trump fought to keep secrets.
Nancy Pelosi exercised power to the end.