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  • Nancy Pelosi Steps Down As House Democratic Leader

    Nancy Pelosi Steps Down As House Democratic Leader

    2. Nancy Pelois Steps Down As House Democratic Leader

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on November 17 that she will not seek a leadership position in the new Congress, ending a historic run as the first woman with the gavel and making way for a new generation to steer the party after Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in the midterm elections. In a spirited speech on the House floor, Pelosi announced that she will step aside after leading Democrats for nearly 20 years and in the aftermath of the brutal attack on her husband, Paul, last month in their San Francisco home, and after having done “the people’s work.” The California Democrat, a pivotal figure in US history and perhaps the most powerful speaker in modern times, said she would remain in Congress as the representative from San Francisco, a position she has held for 35 years, when the new Congress convenes in January. “I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” she said. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.” Now, she said, “we must move boldly into the future.”

    President Joe Biden, who had encouraged Nancy Pelosi to stay on as Democratic leader, spoke with Pelosi in the morning and congratulated her on her historic tenure as speaker of the House. “History will note she is the most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history,” President Biden said in a statement, noting her ability to win unity from her caucus and her “absolute dignity.” It is an unusual choice for a party leader to stay on after withdrawing from congressional leadership, but not without precedent and Pelosi has long defied convention in pursuing power in Washington. In an interview with reporters after her announcement, Pelosi said she will not endorse anyone in the race to succeed her and she will not sit on any committees as a rank-and-file lawmaker. She said the attack on her husband “made me think again about staying.” But in the end, after the election, she decided to step down. “I quite frankly, personally, have been ready to leave for a while,” she said. “Because there are things I want to do. I like to dance, I like to sing. There’s a life out there, right?”

    During her remarks on the House floor, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recapped her career, from seeing the Capitol the first time as a young girl with her father, a former congressman and mayor, to serving as speaker alongside US presidents, noting three of the four, but not mentioning Donald Trump. “Every day I am in awe of the majestic miracle that is American democracy,” she said. At one point, she compared the better-than-expected showing for Democrats in the midterms, the first national election after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, as “proof through the night that our flag was still there,” drawing cheers from colleagues.

    Nancy Pelosi was twice elected to the speakership and has led Democrats through consequential moments, including the passage of the Affordable Care Act with President Barack Obama and the impeachments of President Donald Trump. Pelosi’s decision paves the way for House Democratic leadership elections next month when Democrats reorganize as the minority party for the new Congress. Pelosi’s leadership team, with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, has long moved as a triumvirate. All now in their 80s, the three House Democratic leaders have faced restless colleagues eager for them to step aside and allow a new generation to take charge. Hoyer said after Pelosi’s remarks that “it is the time for a new generation of leaders” and that he will also step down from leadership but stay in Congress. Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black American in Congress, has said he expects to stay in Congress next year and hopes to remain at the leadership table. Democratic Congressmembers Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, and Pete Aguilar of California have similarly moved as a trio, all working toward becoming the next generation of leaders. Jeffries could make history in the future if Democrats regain control, and he enters the race to become the nation’s first African American speaker of the House.

    First elected in 1986, Nancy Pelosi was among a dozen Democratic women in Congress. She was long ridiculed by Republicans as a San Francisco liberal while steadily rising as a skilled legislator and fundraising powerhouse. Her own Democratic colleagues have intermittently appreciated but also feared her powerful brand of leadership. Pelosi first became speaker in 2007, saying she had cracked the “marble ceiling,” after Democrats swept to power in the 2006 midterm elections in a backlash to then-President George W. Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • 117th US Congress Sworn In

    117th US Congress Sworn In

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was reelected to lead the chamber as the 117th Congress convened on January 4, with the California Democrat set to shepherd her party through a new Congress with the slimmest majority of any political party since 1917. Members cast their votes for speaker ahead of their swearing in Sunday evening, with Pelosi earning support from 216 Democrats and clearing the threshold of 214 to secure the House’s top position. The proceedings at the Capitol were marked by the Coronavirus pandemic, which led to a changing of procedures to ensure the new Congress could gather safely. Two Democrats, Jared Golden of Maine and Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, cast votes for Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, respectively. Three Democratic House members voted “present.” Notably, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, and other members of “The Squad” backed Pelosi in her bid for the speakership. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy won 209 votes from Republicans.

    In remarks following her election to a fourth term as speaker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber’s “most urgent priority” will be defeating the Coronavirus pandemic and said Congress “must do more to recognize” the workers on the frontlines of the crisis. “They make our lives possible at the state and local level, and will facilitate the distribution of the vaccine. We owe them more,” she said. “Many of our essential workers are from communities of color and low-wealth communities which have been devastatingly and disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. They have been there for us, and we must be there for them.” Pelosi said the new Congress must “pursue justice” as it addresses the disparities the pandemic has exposed, and challenged House members to live up to the pledge to provide justice for all. “In all that we do, let us be for the people – recognizing the beautiful diversity of America, so that no one is left out or left behind,” she said. “We do so, guided by the vision of our founders, the sacrifice of our military and their families and the aspirations that we all have for the children.”

    The new session comes days before lawmakers will meet to count the votes of the Electoral College and finalize the presidential election results. Nearly a dozen Repubican senators said that they plan to object to the results on January 6, citing false claims of widespread voter fraud pushed by President Donald Trump and his allies. Ahead of Sunday’s proceedings, the House sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol attending physician sent guidelines to new and returning House members, according to Roll Call. The traditional quorum call, swearing-in of new members and speaker election is being done in seven groups, significantly lengthening the day’s events. 

    The House convened at noon, with the election of a new speaker as the first order of business. Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, nominated Pelosi for speaker, calling her a “resilient leader.” Members were sworn in following the election. “Nancy Pelosi believes that our sacred mission is to continue America’s long, necessary and majestic march toward a more perfect union,” Jeffries said in a speech on the House floor before the vote kicked off. Texas Congressman Chip Roy, a Republican, objected to seating the 67 representatives from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada. In a statement, Roy said he did so because a number of his colleagues, including fellow members of the House Freedom Caucus, plan to challenge the Electoral College votes from those states over “their deeply held belief that those states conducted elections plagued by statewide, systemic fraud and abuse.” Roy has previously made it clear he oppose this move. “After all, those representatives were elected through the very same systems — with the same ballot procedures, with the same signature validations, with the same broadly applied decisions of executive Judicial branch officials — as were the electors chosen for the President of the United States under the laws of those states, which have become the subject of national controversy,” said Roy, whose objection was voted down 371-2.

    In a striking symbol of how the Coronavirus complicated proceedings, a special section of the House chamber was enclosed in plexiglass so three lawmakers who are in “quarantine status” would be able to vote. Dr. Brian Monahan, Congress’ attending physician, said the “highest possible safeguards have been implemented including separate, enhanced ventilation in this space and separate holding facilities for any Members utilizing” the separate space. Members using the space were required to have tested negative for the virus. The special accommodations were also a reflection of the razor-thin margin in the vote for speaker. Democrats will start the 117th Congress with 222 members, just four over the 218 threshold needed for a majority, with one race in New York still undecided. Proxy voting, which allowed for members to cast votes while not physically present at the Capitol, lapsed with the end of the last Congress. The new House will have to vote on whether to extend proxy voting. This means that anyone who is absent on Sunday will not be able to cast a vote in the speaker election. 

    In the Senate, which also convened at noon for the start of the 117th Congress, Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath of office to pairs of new and reelected members, offering elbow bumps to each. “To say the 117th Congress convenes at a challenging time would indeed be an understatement,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after members were sworn in. “From political division to a deadly pandemic to adversaries around the world, the hurdles before us are many and they are serious. But there is also plenty of reason for hope. An optimistic, can-do spirit has been one of our country’s most distinctive calling cards since our very earliest days, and with safe and effective vaccines rolling out across our nation every day, I’d say 2021 looks bright already.”

  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Announces Efforts To Remove Confederate Symbols From US Capitol

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Announces Efforts To Remove Confederate Symbols From US Capitol

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi renewed a years-long quest to remove the remaining Confederate statues from the US Capitol as calls to erase monuments to the Confederacy increase amid the nation’s reckoning with its racist past. Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter on June 10 to her colleagues who co-chair the Joint Committee on the Library that Congress should “lead by example.” “The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation,” Pelosi wrote. “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals. Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed.” Pelosi, then the House Minority Leader, led this charge in 2017 after the violent white supremacist marches in Charlottesville that began over plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. But Republicans rejected her entreaty, saying it is up to the states to decide the likenesses they want representing them in Washington.

    Each state is allowed to choose two statues to decorate the halls of Congress. There are, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s letter, 11 Confederate statutes, including Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, the President and Vice President of the Confederate States of America, respectively. Some states have taken it upon themselves to remove statues honoring those who sided with the Confederacy. In 2019, Arkansas replaced two figures from the Civil War with statues of music legend Johnny Cash and civil rights icon Daisy Lee Gatson Bates, though at the time Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson said the reason for the swap was to have a more modern representation of the state. Now, the debate over whether to remove Confederate monuments from public and private spaces has raged anew in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, which spawned a national reckoning over the history of racism in the US.

    Unlike other attempts to remove Confederate monuments, a societal awareness around issues of systemic racism could lead to more action. This week, institutions including NASCAR and the US Marine Corps banned the use of the Confederate symbols, and there’s increasing pressure to rename military bases that are named for Confederate generals. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), the vice chairwoman of the Joint Committee on the Library, said in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s letter that the Confederate statues displayed around the US Capitol should be replaced. “I agree that the Joint Committee and Architect of the Capitol should expediently remove these symbols of cruelty and bigotry from the halls of the Capitol,” Lofgren said. “I stand ready, and call on the Chair of the Joint Committee to swiftly approve the removal of these statues. The Capitol building belongs to the American people and cannot serve as a place of honor for the hatred and racism that tears at the fabric of our nation, the very poison that these statues embody.”