Nancy Pelosi



Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi (born March 26, 1940) is an American politician serving as speaker of the United States House of Representatives since January 2019. First elected to Congress in 1987, she is the only woman to have served as speaker. Pelosi is second in the presidential line of succession, immediately after the vice president. A member of the Democratic Party, Pelosi is in her 17th term as a congresswoman, representing California's 12th congressional district (since 2013), which consists of four-fifths of the city and county of San Francisco.

She was the highest-ranking elected woman in United States history until Kamala Harris became VP. Pelosi announced on November 17, 2023 she is standing down as leader of the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives at the end of the present term in January 2023.

year unknown

 * A woman is like a teabag. You can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
 * Interview with ABC News, as quoted by Hilary Clinton.


 * Are you serious? Are you serious?
 * When asked :"Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-JByUpfmjQ


 * Am I going to have to use my ‘Mother of Five Voice’ to be heard?" (to an inattentive audience while campaigning)-Quoted in the October 23, 2006 issue of Newsweek


 * Democrats are not about getting even. Democrats are about helping the American people get ahead, and that’s what our agenda is about. So while some people are excited about prospects that they have in terms of their priorities, they are not our priorities. I have said, and I say again, that impeachment is off the table
 * Pelosi’s no fan of impeachment: Just ask Clinton and Bush mentioned in an AP article on March 20, 2019

2003

 * The word 'campaign' is a war term. So when you go into a campaign you just prepare to go to war. If you think this is an exercise in civic activity...then you are going to be surprised.-1985

2005

 * Why should we put a plan out? Our plan is to stop him. He must be stopped.
 * Referring to George W. Bush on Fox News (March 17, 2005)


 * [T]hey had to make up that story about weapons of mass destruction. Because that was the only thing that would sell to the American people, and that wasn't true.
 * The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (November 30, 2005)

2006

 * I have said it before and I will say it again: Impeachment is off the table.


 * As many of you know, I come from San Francisco. We don't have a lot of farms there. Well, we do have one—it's a mushroom farm, so you know what that means.
 * To The Agribusiness Club of Washington (July 24, 2006)


 * The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.
 * Post-election comments, 2006-11-7.


 * Maybe it will take a woman to clean up the House.
 * Interview with Barbara Walters (December 13, 2006)

2007

 * I say to my colleagues never confine your best work, your hopes, your dreams, the aspiration of the American people to what will be signed by George W. Bush because that is too limiting a factor.

2008



 * Members of Congress I have the high privilege and distinct honour of presenting to you, his excellency Bertie Ahern (/ei/hern), the Taoiseach, the Prime Minister of Ireland.
 * Referring to Bertie Ahern (Ah-hern) at a joint meeting of the US Congress at Capital Hill in Washington (April 30, 2008) http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0430/ahernb.html


 * By making college more affordable for all and more accessible for minority students, the first new higher education authorizing legislation in a decade will help strengthen our nation and America's middle class, and spur a new age of innovation and ingenuity in our country.


 * Your recent meetings with Chinese dissidents at the White House are to be commended. However, your participation at the opening ceremony of the Olympics will send a signal to the Chinese people and the international community that could be misperceived as your approval, and that of the American people, for the draconian policies of the Chinese government. Therefore, it is essential that you unambiguously speak out for human rights and meet with the families of jailed prisoners of conscience while you are in Beijing. (In a letter to President Bush prior to his 2008 trip to Beijing's Summer Olympic Games


 * "Can we drill your brains?"(responding to attendants who interrupted her speech by chanting "Drill here! Drill now!")


 * The proposed Bush regulations put politics above the health care needs of Americans.


 * "Why don't we just leave this room today forgetting the word 'earmark'?"-June 2007


 * With Americans worried about losing their jobs, their savings, their homes and their chance at the American Dream, the New Direction Congress will work in a bipartisan way to lift our economy and help America's middle class.


 * This president goes into office with more expectations than any president I can ever remember in my lifetime.-2008


 * I didn't know you were Catholic. (to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as he got down on one knee to beg Pelosi to find Democratic support for the bailout bill)-2008

2009

 * Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory...of how we are taking responsibility.

2010

 * You've heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don't know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it's about diet, not diabetes. It's going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.
 * 9 March, 2010. Source: Having to pass a bill to know what is does is a Grin and Bear It cartoon punchline from 1947, paraphased in a 1948 Indiana Law Journal article by then Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. Frankfurter was in turn cited in 2015's decision in King v. Burwell, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, which turned on a complication in the very law resulting from the bill Pelosi was above describing.


 * You go through the gate. If the gate’s closed you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole-vault. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people.
 * 11 November 2010

2012

 * [Under the Affordable Care Act ] everybody will have lower rates, better quality care, and better access.
 * NBC-TV Meet the Press (July 1, 2012)

2018

 * I have said to people when they ask me, if this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain would be our commitment to our aid, I don’t even call it our aid, our cooperation with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are.
 * During 2018 IAC National Conference (December 12, 2018)

2019

 * The racist, homophobic attack on @JussieSmollett is an affront to our humanity, No one should be attacked for who they are or whom they love. I pray that Jussie has a speedy recovery & that justice is served. May we all commit to ending this hate once & for all.
 * Regarding Jussie Smollett (January 30, 2019)


 * The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable facts of betrayal of his oath of office and betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections
 * Read: Nancy Pelosi’s full statement on launching Trump impeachment inquiry (By Jen Kirbyjen.kirby@vox.com Sep 24, 2019, 6:05pm EDT)

Announcement of Official Impeachment Inquiry against President Donald Trump (2019)

 * "Pelosi Remarks Announcing Impeachment Inquiry" (September 24, 2019)

Sadly, on that day, the Intelligence Community Inspector General formally notified the Congress that the Administration was forbidding him from turning over a whistleblower complaint. On Constitution Day. This is a violation of law. Shortly thereafter, press reports began to break of a phone call by the President of the United States calling upon a foreign power to intervene in his election. This is a breach of his constitutional responsibilities. The facts are these: the Intelligence Community Inspector General, who was appointed by President Trump, determined that the complaint is both of "urgent concern and credible," and its disclosure, he went on to say, that it "relates to one of the most significant and important of the Director of National Intelligence"s responsibilities to the American people." On Thursday, the Inspector General testified before the House Intelligence Committee, stating that the Acting Director of National Intelligence blocked him from disclosing the whistleblower complaint. This is a violation of the law.
 * Last Tuesday, we observed the anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution on September 17.

They asked Benjamin Franklin, "What do we have: a republic or a monarchy?" '''Franklin replied: "A republic, if you can keep it." Our responsibility is to keep it.'''
 * On the final day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when our Constitution was adopted, Americans gathered on the steps of Independence Hall to await the news of the government our Founders had crafted.

The actions taken to date by the President have seriously violated the Constitution — especially when the President says, "Article II says, I can do whatever I want."
 * Our republic endures because of the wisdom of our Constitution, enshrined in three co-equal branches of government, serving as checks and balances on each other.

Therefore, today, I am announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.''' I am directing our six Committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry. '''The President must be held accountable. No one is above the law.'''
 * The action of — '''the actions of the Trump Presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the President's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.


 * Getting back to our Founders — in the darkest days of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote: "The times have found us." The times found them to fight for and establish our democracy. The times have found us today, not to place ourselves in the same category of greatness as our Founders, but to place us in the urgency of protecting and defending our Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. In the words of Ben Franklin, to keep our Republic.

2020

 * It's Sunday morning. Let's be optimistic about the future, a future that will not have Donald Trump in the White House one way or another.
 * interview (January 12, 2020)


 * But it's Sunday morning, let's be optimistic about the future -- a future that *will not* have Trump in the White House one way or another.
 * Tweet (January 12, 2020)


 * The Trump Administration’s expansion of its outrageous, un-American travel ban threatens our security, our values and the rule of law. The sweeping rule, barring more than 350 million individuals from predominantly African nations from traveling to the United States, is discrimination disguised as policy.
 * Newsroom statements (January 31, 2020)


 * Whether he knows it yet or not, he will be leaving
 * Concerning Donald Trump (July 20, 2020)


 * China would prefer Joe Biden, whether they do, that's their conclusion, that they would prefer Joe Biden. Russia is actively, 24/7 interfering in our election. They did so in 2016, and they are doing so now. And they [the intelligence community] say that to a certain extent, but they need to tell the American People more. The American People, I believe, think they should decide who the President of the United States is, not Vladimir Putin making that decision for us.
 * CNN Interview (August 9, 2020) quoted in


 * A brazen invitation for something like this to happen
 * Video "Trump's behaviour was 'brazen invitation' for COVID-19 infection" (October 2, 2020)


 * I feel very confident that Joe Biden will be elected President on Tuesday, whatever the end count is
 * (October 29, 2020)


 * Today, with confidence in science & at the direction of the Office of the Attending Physician, I received the COVID-19 vaccine. As the vaccine is being distributed, we must all continue mask wearing, social distancing & other science-based steps to save lives & crush the virus.
 * via twitter (December 18, 2020)

2021



 * @SenSchumer and I are calling on President Trump to demand that all protestors leave the U.S. Capitol and Capitol grounds immediately.
 * via Twitter tweet (January 6, 2021)


 * I have ordered the flags at the Capitol lowered to half-staff in Officer Sicknick’s honor. The sacrifice of Officer Sicknick reminds us of our obligation to those we serve: to protect our country from all threats foreign and domestic. May it be a comfort to Officer Sicknick’s family that so many mourn with and pray for them at this sad time.
 * Pelosi Statement on Death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick (January 8, 2020)


 * I ask that you immediately cease plans to improperly install Michael Ellis as the new NSA General Counsel.
 * Letter to Christopher Miller according to Pelosi demands acting Pentagon chief halt his order to NSA to install Trump loyalist as general counsel (January 18, 2021)


 * Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice .. your name will always be synonymous with justice.
 * Cited by HuffPost (April 20, 2021)


 * I'm never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn't have the votes.
 * Let me just say we're going to pass the bill this week
 * "Pelosi on infrastructure bill: 'I'm never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn't have the votes'" (September 26, 2021)


 * Discussions continue with the House, Senate and White House to reach a bicameral framework agreement to Build Back Better through a reconciliation bill.
 * All of this momentum brings us closer to shaping the reconciliation bill in a manner that will pass the House and Senate
 * In a letter with the promise: “More to follow" "Democrats scramble to satisfy centrists with Biden’s agenda on the line" (September 30, 2021)


 * In order to pass both the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill on time, it is essential that difficult decisions must be made very soon.
 * Overwhelmingly, the guidance I am receiving from Members is to do fewer things well so that we can still have a transformative impact on families in the workplace and responsibly address the climate crisis: a Build Back Better agenda for jobs and the planet For The Children!
 * At the same time, we must lift the debt ceiling and hope that we can have a unanimous Democratic vote and perhaps a bipartisan vote to do so
 * "Pelosi writes to Democrats about Build Back Better" (October 12, 2021)


 * The sad loss of Colin Powell is another sad indication of the devastating toll that the coronavirus continues to take on our country.  As we pray for the General Powell’s loved ones, we pray for the families of the nearly 725,000 Americans who have been taken from us by this vicious virus.
 * "Pelosi Statement on Passing of Colin Powell" (October 18, 2021)


 * I'll let you know as soon as I wish to
 * "Pelosi tells Democratic leaders she wants House votes on infrastructure bills this week" (November4, 2021)


 * Election night was not a good night for Democrats
 * "Election night 'not a good night' for Democrats, Nancy Pelosi says" (November4) (Youtube video) talking about the loss of the Virginia governor's seat.

2022



 * Twelve years ago, when President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, our nation took an historic step toward fulfilling a fundamental promise: that health care is a right, not a privilege
 * Pelosi Statement on 12th Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (March 23, 2022)


 * The justice of the Supreme Court has to at least have a code of ethics, A, and B, why should they have lower standards than members of Congress in terms of reporting and the rest?
 * ‘’"Pelosi calls for Supreme Court code of ethics", The Hill (March 31, 2022)


 * We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom — that we’re on a frontier of freedom, and that your fight is a fight for everyone. And so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.
 * Remarks to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, quoted in "Pelosi makes unannounced trip to Kyiv, becoming highest-ranking US official to meet with Zelensky since the war began" by Michelle Watson and Eliza Mackintosh, CNN (May 1, 2022); also in "Pelosi meets Zelenskyy in Ukraine, says commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done'", Global News (May 1, 2022)


 * Our delegation traveled to Kyiv to send an unmistakable and resounding message to the entire world: America stands firmly with Ukraine. Our meeting with President Zelenskyy began with him thanking the United States for the substantial assistance that we have provided.  He conveyed the clear need for continued security, economic and humanitarian assistance from the United States to address the devastating human toll taken on the Ukrainian people by Putin's diabolic invasion — and our delegation proudly delivered the message that additional American support is on the way, as we work to transform President Biden’s strong funding request into a legislative package.  Our delegation conveyed our respect and gratitude to President Zelenskyy for his leadership and our admiration of the Ukrainian people for their courage in the fight against Russia’s oppression.
 * "Pelosi, Congressional Delegation Statement on Visit to Kyiv, Ukraine" Speaker.gov (May 1, 2022)


 * This is not right, this is not the path of freedom for our country
 * Interviews with: Gov. Kathy Hochul, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Pete Ricketts, Finland President Sauli Niinistö. (May 15, 2022 video)
 * On the anti-Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision


 * Today, I joined Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union for an interview discussing how House Democrats are working to stop gun violence, fighting to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law and taking action on the baby formula shortage.
 * Speaker Pelosi on CNN's State of the Union with Dana Bash (May 15, 2022 Youtube video)

We are grateful for the quick response of law enforcement and emergency services, and for the life-saving medical care he is receiving. Please know that the outpouring of prayers and warm wishes from so many in the Congress is a comfort to our family and is helping Paul make progress with his recovery. His condition continues to improve.
 * Yesterday morning, a violent man broke into our family home, demanded to confront me and brutally attacked my husband Paul. Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop.
 * Cited by Joanna Walters in "Biden says it appears attack on Paul Pelosi intended for House Speaker" The Guardian (October 30, 2022)


 * And whatever happens, we will respect the results of the election.
 * Transcript of Pelosi Interview on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 ("NOVEMBER 7, 2022 PRESS RELEASE")


 * When I came to the Congress in 1987, there were 12 Democratic women. Now there are over 90 — and we want more.
 * The new members of our Democratic caucus will be about 75 percent women, people of color and LGBTQ
 * The remarkable increase in House diversity during Pelosi’s tenure (Analysis by Philip Bump National columnist Updated November 17, 2022 at 3:19 p.m. EST|Published November 17, 2022 at 3:11 p.m. EST)

Reaction to the Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade (May 2022)

 * "Collins, Manchin and other lawmakers react to the Supreme Court draft opinion", Politico (3 May 2022)


 * The Republican-appointed Justices' reported votes to overturn Roe v. Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.


 * Several of these conservative Justices, who are in no way accountable to the American people, have lied to the U.S. Senate, ripped up the Constitution and defiled both precedent and the Supreme Court’s reputation — all at the expense of tens of millions of women who could soon be stripped of their bodily autonomy and the constitutional rights they’ve relied on for half a century.


 * The party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has now completely devolved into the party of Trump. Every Republican Senator who supported Senator McConnell and voted for Trump Justices pretending that this day would never come will now have to explain themselves to the American people

Declining to seek re-election to Democratic leadership (17 November 2022)

 * "Pelosi Floor Speech on Future Plans"; also online at "Full Transcript of Nancy Pelosi’s Speech", The New York Times (17 November 2022)

I was riding in the car with my brothers, and they were thrilled and jumping up and down and saying to me, "Nancy, look, there’s the Capitol." And I keep — every time I’d say: "I don’t see any capital. Is it a capital A, a capital B or a capital C?" And finally, I saw it. A stunning white building with a magnificent dome. '''I believed then, as I believe today, this is the most beautiful building in the world because of what it represents. The Capitol is a temple of our democracy, of our Constitution, of our highest ideals.''' On that day — on that day, '''I stood with my father on this floor as he took the sacred oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. All of us who have served in this House have taken the hallowed oath of office.''' And it is the oath that stitches us together in a long and storied heritage. Colleagues who served before us are all our colleagues. Colleagues like Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Shirley Chisholm, Patsy Mink and our beloved John Lewis. Personally, it binds me as a colleague to my father, a proud New Deal congressman and one of the earliest Italian Americans to serve in the Congress. And this is an oath we are duty bound to keep, and it links us with the highest aspirations of the ages.
 * I will never forget the first time I saw the Capitol. It was on a cold January day when I was 6 years old. My father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., was about to be sworn in for his fifth term in Congress representing our beloved hometown of Baltimore.

Indeed, it is here, under the gaze of our patriarch, George Washington, in the people’s House, that we have done the people’s work. My colleagues, I stand before you as speaker of the House, as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a devout Catholic, a proud Democrat and a patriotic American, a citizen of the greatest republic in the history of the world — which President Lincoln called the last best hope on Earth. Indeed, in the words attributed to another of our colleagues, the legendary Daniel Webster, he said: "Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of your country and the government established under it. Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in 6,000 years cannot be expected to happen often." Indeed, American democracy is majestic. But it is fragile. Many of us here have witnessed its fragility firsthand — tragically, in this chamber. And so democracy must be forever defended from forces that wish it harm.
 * In this room, our colleagues across history have abolished slavery; granted women the right to vote; established Social Security and Medicare; offered a hand to the weak, care to the sick, education to the young and hope to the many.

With these elections, the people stood in the breach and repelled the assault on democracy.''' They resoundingly rejected violence and insurrection, and in doing so gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. And now we owe to the American people our very best, to deliver on their faith. To forever reach for the more perfect union — the glorious horizon that our founders promised. The questions before this Congress and at this moment are urgent. Questions about the ideals that this House is charged by the Constitution to preserve and protect. Establish justice. Ensure domestic tranquillity. Provide for the common defense. Promote the general welfare. And secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Our posterity. Our children. Babies born today will live into the next century. And our decisions will determine their future for generations to come. '''While we will have our disagreements on policy, we must remain fully committed to our shared fundamental mission, to hold strong to our most treasured democratic ideals, to cherish the spark of divinity in each and every one of us, and to always put our country first. In their infinite wisdom, our founders gave us their guidance: e pluribus unum. From the many, one.''' They could not have imagined how large our country would become or how different we would be from one another. But they knew we had to be united as one. We the people. One country. One destiny.
 * '''Last week, the American people spoke, and their voices were raised in defense of liberty, of the rule of law and of democracy itself.

When I came to the Congress in 1987, there were 12 Democratic women. Now there are over 90. And we want more. The new members of our Democratic caucus will be about 75 percent women, people of color and L.G.B.T.Q. And we have brought more voices to the decision-making table. When I entered leadership in 2002, there were eight of us. Today, there are 17 members of the leadership. When I first came to the floor at 6 years old, never would I have thought that someday I would go from homemaker to House speaker. In fact, I never — in fact, I never intended to run for public office. Mommy and Daddy taught us through their example that public service is a noble calling and that we all have a responsibility to help others. In our family, my brother Tommy then became mayor of Baltimore also. But it’s been my privilege to play a part in forging extraordinary progress for the American people.
 * It’s been with great pride in my 35 years in the House I have seen this body grow more reflective of our great nation, our beautiful nation.

Now we must move boldly into the future, grounded by the principles that have propelled us this far and open to fresh possibilities for the future.
 * I have enjoyed working with three presidents, achieving historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush; transformative health care reform with President Barack Obama; and forging — and forging the future from infrastructure to health care to climate action with President Joe Biden.

And with great confidence in our caucus, '''I will not seek re-election to Democratic leadership in the next Congress. For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.''' And I am grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility.
 * Scripture teaches us that for everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. My friends, no matter what title you all, my colleagues, have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader, whip — there is no greater official honor for me than to stand on this floor and to speak for the people of San Francisco. This I will continue to do as a member of the House, speaking for the people of San Francisco, serving the great state of California and defending our Constitution.

A new day is dawning on the horizon, and '''I look forward, always forward, to the unfolding story of our nation, a story of light and love, of patriotism and progress, of many becoming one. And always an unfinished mission to make the dreams of today the reality of tomorrow.'''
 * In this House, we begin each day with a prayer and a pledge to the flag. And every day I am in awe of the majestic miracle that is American democracy. As we participate in a hallmark of our republic — the peaceful, orderly transition from one Congress to the next — let us consider the words of, again, President Lincoln, spoken during one of America’s darkest hours. He called upon us to come together, to swell the chorus of the union, when once again touched as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature. That again is the task at hand.


 * It is clear that House Democratic Members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country. As states continue to tabulate the final results, every vote must be counted as cast. Many thanks to our grassroots volunteers for enabling every voter to have their say in our Democracy
 * Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on the results, saying that while there are several races that remain too close to call

2023

 * CNN interview on proposed expungement of Donald Trump's impeachment being added actively

2024

 * For them to call for a ceasefire is Mr Putin’s message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see. Same thing with Ukraine. It’s about Putin’s message. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere. Some, I think, are connected to Russia. Seeds or plants. I think some financing should be investigated. And I want to ask the FBI to investigate that.
 * Pelosi condemned for suggesting pro-Palestinian activists have ties to Russia (January 29, 2024)


 * Go back to China, that’s where your headquarters is.
 * Nancy Pelosi was caught on camera asking pro-Palestinian protesters to 'go back to China' (January 29, 2023)

Quotes about Pelosi

 * Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?
 * AP source: Assailant shouted 'Where is Nancy?' in attack (4 minutes ago)


 * House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is similarly enamored of this rhetoric of bipartisan comity in the face of a Republican Party whose members are caught in the grip of a cult of personality marked by conspiratorial thinking and an open contempt for electoral democracy. “It might come as a surprise to some of you that the president I quote most often is President Reagan,” Pelosi said at the ribbon-cutting for the Washington branch of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. “The good humor of our president was really a tonic for the nation, the gentleman that he was.” And last month, she told an audience in Miami that she wants a “strong Republican Party” that can return to where it was when it “cared about a woman’s right to choose” and “cared about the environment.” Of course, the ideologically moderate Republican Party that Pelosi seems to want resurrected was largely dead by the time she entered national politics in the late 1970s, bludgeoned into submission with the notable help of Ronald Reagan, among other figures.
 * Jamelle Bouie Article (2022)


 * I think there’s a deeper divide, between a politics that sees the grass roots as an asset to use and cultivate versus one that treats it as a complication to manage. It’s a “leader knows best” approach that may squander the Democratic Party’s advantage of enthusiasm and drive against a corrupt and unpopular president. It even seems as though for Democrats like Pelosi, the only political actions that truly matter are either in the legislature or at the ballot box. It’s an understandable view for a leadership class whose political memories stretch back to the devastating Democratic losses of 1968 and 1972 (to say nothing of 1980 and 1984). But it’s also bred of a deep aversion to risk-taking, even when circumstances warrant bold action.
 * Jamelle Bouie Article (2019)


 * A large number of proud Jewish Americans — raised to believe in civil liberties and open discussion — are appalled by the campaign to muzzle Rep. Ilhan Omar, as well as Speaker Pelosi’s role in it. We’re also appalled that human-rights-abusing Israel is virtually off-limits to debate. … Rep. Omar has made a simple and undeniable point — that AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the funding it influences exert extraordinary power over Congress. Disputing that point is flat-earther terrain. The Capitol Hill farce of an “anti-hate” resolution would provide still more evidence on behalf of her argument. Unfortunately, all the vague media references to Rep Omar’s “anti-Semitic remarks” obscure how truthful and non-hateful those comments were.
 * Jeff Cohen, in "This Jew Tells Speaker Pelosi: 'You May Well Prove Ilhan Omar Correct'", CounterPunch (7 March 2019)


 * in 2002 and 2003, top Democrats, including current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, raised almost no formal objections to torture techniques, including waterboarding, after being briefed on it by the CIA.
 * Amy Goodman Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008)


 * I think Nancy Pelosi is extremely qualified to be speaker of the House, because she has been speaker of the House. I trust her leadership. I trust her judgment. I think that she is the person we need right now. And perhaps when we move forward and, you know, our politics isn’t as, you know, in a critical sort of era, that, yes, we—if she’s ready to pass the mantle on, I will absolutely support another qualified individual. But currently, I think she would do a good job.
 * Deb Haaland Interview with Democracy Now (November 2018)


 * The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided
 * Pelosi's spokesman Drew Hammil US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tests positive for Covid (April 7, 2022)


 * The leadership of the party, the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Tom Perez, are creations of corporate America. In an open and democratic political process, one not dominated by party elites and corporate money, these people would not hold political power. They know this. They would rather implode the entire system than give up their positions of privilege. And that, I fear, is what will happen. The idea that the Democratic Party is in any way a bulwark against despotism defies the last three decades of its political activity. It is the guarantor of despotism.
 * Chris Hedges in The Coming Collapse, Common Dreams, (21 May 2018)


 * I don't think people are buying such a performance. I also don't believe that people are buying Pelosi's little kente-cloth, "take a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter" trick either....
 * Chris Hedges, Chris Hedges: America faces a historic choice — "ugly corporate tyranny" or revolution, Chuncey Devega, Salon (16 July 2020)


 * Paid leave should be a national right, rather than a patchwork option limited to those whose employers have policies in place, or those who live in one of the few states where a leave program exists
 * Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in a letter to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi "Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, urges Schumer and Pelosi to pass federal paid family leave" (October 21, 2021)


 * [She is] as effective as any legislative leader I’ve seen in managing a diverse and often contentious group of folks with a lot of different points of view.”
 * Barrack Obama "Exclusive: How Donald Trump upended Nancy Pelosi’s plans, then she unraveled his" article published April 16, 2021


 * Influence and enemies go hand in hand. I learned this lesson explicitly from Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to become Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and someone I admire greatly. In the summer of 2019, she invited me on a congressional delegation to Ghana. During the flight, she told me about her journey: from her first campaign in 1987 when she was elected to Congress to becoming the highest-ranking female elected official in United States history, not once but twice. Then she turned the conversation to me. "It is really moving to see the number of people who come out to support you," she said. "Yes, but every time I'm attacked, the attack seems to be amplified by the support," I replied, confiding in her because it might make more sense to her than to most. "Sometimes I wish I could shoo them all away and take the beating myself so that I don't continue to feed the craziness." She sighed and looked at me with a maternal gaze, one that had a lot of knowledge behind it. Nancy is the kind of person who, by the time we landed, knew Ghana's economy down to the percentage change in its cocoa bean exports over the last year but who also put a blanket around me when I fell asleep in my seat. "The amount of money that is spent on ads and anything else to try to take me down is mind-boggling," she said. "The truth is, it is a badge of honor to have many people invested in one's failure. If they weren't this afraid of your power, they wouldn't work so hard to erode it." To hear that message from the powerful being she is meant more than words can express.
 * Ilhan Omar This is What America Looks Like (2021)


 * In Munich this past weekend at the Security Conference the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, nailed her anti-Chinese colours to the mast. Despite being a liberal on many issues and the leader of the fight to impeach President Donald Trump, she has joined forces with Trump in preaching that the West must not allow itself to be penetrated by Huawei’s 5G phone technology, (which is cheaper than any Western counterpart). But she appeared to have no response to a former Chinese ambassador to the UK who asked what was wrong with Huawei seeking Western markets when Microsoft, Google and Facebook were such big players in China. The Chinese government didn’t feel its security was threatened by them.  He could also have added that if they do anything that the Chinese government doesn’t like China is always able to deal with it... China has not gone to war since 1979.  It has not used lethal military force abroad since 1988... China does not fly through US airspace.
 * It’s Rubbish to Trash China, by Jonathan Power, Counter Punch, (March 5, 2020)


 * ("Do you think Nancy Pelosi should be House speaker?") Leader Pelosi is an incredible person and has done an incredible job. But at some point we have to make decisions on whether or not we want to be able to get someone there that can speak to the various challenges and issues of my families back home in the 13th Congressional District. They’re my priority. And right now the stance around Dodd-Frank, the stance around a number of issues are troubling for me. And so that’s why I have been very much saying that probably not. I haven’t spoken to Leader Pelosi. I don’t want to use this as, you know, giving you some general, generic response. I can tell you I most likely want to lean toward someone that will be more in line with the civil rights issues of my district.
 * Rashida Tlaib interview with Democracy Now (2018)


 * There was a strange aftertaste to many of the calls for grand social reform in 2020. As the coronavirus crisis overtook us, the left wing on both sides of the Atlantic, at least that part that had been fired up Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, was going down to defeat. The promise of a radicalized and reenergized left, organized around the idea of the Green New Deal, seemed to dissipate amidst the pandemic. It fell to governments mainly of the center and the right to meet the crisis. They were a strange assortment. Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the United States experimented with denial. For them climate skepticism and virus skepticism went hand in hand. In Mexico, the notionally left-wing government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador also pursued a maverick path, refusing to take drastic action. Nationalist strongmen like Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey did not deny the virus, but relied on their patriotic appeal and bullying tactics to see them through. It was the managerial centrist types who were under most pressure. Figures like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the United States, or Sebastián Piñera in Chile, or Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Ursula von der Leyen, and their ilk in Europe. They accepted the science. Denial was not an option. They were desperate to demonstrate that they were better than the 'populists.' To meet the crisis, very middle-of-the-road politicians ended up doing very radical things. Most of it was improvisation and compromise, but insofar as they managed to put a programmatic gloss on their responses—whether in the form of the EU's Next Generation program or Biden's Build Back Better program in 2020—it came from the repertoire of green modernization, sustainable development, and the Green New Deal.
 * Adam Tooze, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World Economy (2021)


 * "So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics. In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!"
 * Donald Trump on Twitter


 * Nancy Pelosi is asking for $2.4 Trillion Dollars to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States, money that is in no way related to COVID-19. We made a very generous offer of $1.6 Trillion Dollars and, as usual, she is not negotiating in good faith. I am rejecting their request, and looking to the future of our Country,
 * President Trump in Trump says he will not negotiate on COVID relief until after election


 * If you had the opportunity to save a million people from preventable death, would you do it? … This is not merely a rhetorical question, but one that members of the Congress will have to answer in the present… Right now, legislation has already passed the House of Representatives that would do just that. And it was included in the newly released COVID relief bill that is being negotiated between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. It would require the Treasury Department, which represents our government at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to support a multi-trillion dollar relief package from the Fund... And they do not cost the U.S. government anything at all — not now, and not at any time in the future.  The IMF leadership, and almost all of the 189 member countries — including U.S. allies such as Germany and Canada — are ready to allocate the aid that Congress is considering... It would take almost no effort to include the House or Senate bill that would unblock Treasury’s hold on the IMF funding…
 * Mark Weisbrot, If you could save a million lives, would you do it?, The Hill (1 October 2020)