Nancy Pelosi becomes House speaker, making history again

WASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi reclaimed her groundbreaking role as the first and only woman to be speaker of the House on Thursday, giving her a rare opportunity for a second turn at a constitutional post that puts her second in line for the presidency.

Pelosi, 78, a liberal Democrat from San Francisco, will lead a House with a record number of women and people of color — and a Democratic majority that is younger, more diverse and more left-leaning — in a divided Congress after two years of unified Republican control.

“I am particularly proud to be the woman Speaker of the House of this Congress, which marks 100 years of women winning the right to vote, as we serve with more than 100 women in the House of Representatives — the highest number in history,” she said to standing ovations.

Acknowledging the deep partisan division in the House, Pelosi said, “We have no illusions that our work will be easy, that all of us in this chamber will always agree. But let each of us pledge that when we disagree, we will respect each other and we will respect the truth.”

She made that overture on the 13th day of a partial government shutdown in a political stalemate with President Donald Trump, who is demanding $5 billion for a border wall in any package of spending bills to reopen nine departments and other agencies that were closed for lack of funds.

The first legislative bill Democrats planned to pass would reopen those agencies, but without wall funding — a political gesture already rejected by Trump and guaranteed to die in the Senate by its majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Trump later congratulated Pelosi in a surprise White House briefing room appearance, calling her election as speaker “a very very great achievement.” He said he hopes they can work together on issues such as infrastructure, adding, “I think it’s actually going to work out.”

In a chamber filled with lawmakers, spouses and children, and with special guests in the galleries, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Manhattan) nominated Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi — “Democrats are down with NDP” — and Rep. Lynn Cheney (R-Wyo.) nominated Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House majority leader in the last session, as minority leader.

Pelosi, who has led House Democrats for 16 years, overcame resistance within her own caucus to win the full House election in a largely party-line 220-192 vote.

About a dozen Democrats denied Pelosi their support, including Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), who voted instead for Stacey Abrams, a Georgia state legislator who lost her race for governor. The speaker does not have to be a House member.

As she did in 2007, when she first became speaker for four years, Pelosi invited all the children in attendance to join her in the well for her swearing in. “This is for the children,” Pelosi said.

In her address as the new speaker, Pelosi claimed political and constitutional authority, saying on Election Day that the American people “demanded a new dawn” and called upon the “system of checks and balances” with the legislative branch “coequal to the president.”

She summed up the Democrat’s agenda of being “champions of the middle class” and working to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and to create “21st century” public education, workforce development, good-paying jobs and secure pensions.

She spoke of background check legislation for gun purchasers, ending discrimination against LGBTQ Americans and protecting “Dreamers,” who were brought as children to this country illegally. “We must also face the existential threat of our time: the climate crisis,” she said.

But she added, “We will debate and advance good ideas no matter where they come from.”

In an interview aired Thursday morning on NBC's "Today" show, Pelosi sent signals to Trump and Republicans, blaming them for the partial government shutdown and saying that the indictment of a president is an “open question” and refusing to rule out impeachment.

“We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason,” she said.

Pelosi, the daughter of a mayor of Baltimore, raised a family before running for office. She has been a member of the House for three decades, where she mastered the appropriations process and has become skilled at raising money for Democrats.

She served as the first woman speaker from 2007 to 2011.