Even as she says goodbye, Nancy Pelosi shows that she does not shy away from confrontation if necessary. The 82-year-old said she enjoyed “serving under three presidents” when she announced her departure from the leadership of the Democratic Party in the US Congress on Thursday.
The first woman ever to serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives has served under four Presidents (George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden). But she deliberately omits the fourth.
It is unclear whether Trump’s announcement of a renewed candidacy was the main reason for her departure. It is clear that the ex-president, who fueled hatred against Democrats and especially them, influenced her decision. She probably only knows how much the attack on her husband by a Trump supporter shook her.
Nancy Pelosi is intimidated by little. Those who still had serious doubts about the courage of Washington’s Iron Lady were recently taught otherwise. Footage was released by the January 6, 2021 investigative committee that showed them during the storming of the Capitol, during which Trump supporters also attempted their lives.
How Pelosi calls governor after governor asking for support, how the petite and always controlled lady angrily declares that she hopes Trump, who was trying to avoid his election defeat, should come to the Capitol and then she can knock him out, is impressive.
It was similarly notable when, in 2020, after Trump’s State of the Union address, she tore up his speech transcript in front of cameras. She accepted the accusation of further polarizing – for her it was more important to take a stand.
She has had to do this again and again in recent years – and has kept her party together despite all the factional struggles. Pelosi led the Democrats through the Iraq war, the passage of the Obamacare health care reform, two impeachments against Trump and, to the end, she helped Biden implement important policy projects despite the slim majority. The fact that the midterms turned out less badly for the Democrats than was expected is also their success.
The fact that she now announced her departure was not mandatory. Many had asked her to continue. But the 82-year-old was also exemplary on Thursday: in a white pants suit, the color of the suffragettes, which she always wears at decisive moments, the Californian Democrat declared that she was paving the way for the next generation. Some man should take this as an example.
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Source: Tagesspiegel
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