Nancy Pelosi blasts Trump and calls for decency to return

Nancy Pelosi begins her new book with a plea for a return to the norms of common decency in politics. “The current climate of threats and attacks must end,” the former House speaker writes in the first chapter of The Art of Power.

Hairy speaks from personal experience, recalling the fierce partisanship that preceded the attack on her husband, Paul, in their San Francisco home in 2022. She attributes the increased aggression to the firebrand leader of the House Republican Party, Newt Gingrich. But The Art of Power hits bookstores less than a month after another equally brazen act of political violence, when a suspected assassin’s bullet grazed the former president’s right ear Donald Trump.

The parallel events, less than two years apart, reinforce the moral clarity of the argument of Hairy. After the attempted murder of Trump, Hairy publicly condemned “political violence of any kind,” in sharp contrast to the way in which Trump He mocked “Crazy Nancy” and her family, even as Paul Pelosi recovered from his injuries.

Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul. (Stefano Costantino/Zuma press/ContactoPhoto)

But they also reveal the enigma facing readers of this or any other book on contemporary politics: The Art of Power It is both current and outdated, overtaken by the rapid political upheaval in the run-up to the 2024 elections.

The most intriguing question about Hairy Today, it is undoubtedly how the 84-year-old California congresswoman continues to exert such influence, more than a year and a half after leaving power as leader of the House Democrats, that she was able to remove from the race for the White House a sitting president three years her junior.

Although the search for answers to these questions is a recurring theme in the 24/7 news cycle, The Art of Power Instead, it offers insight into the lasting effectiveness of the company’s leadership strategy. Hairy. Last month, polling and fundraising data, which have always been the backbone of his success, suggested that if Biden ran for re-election, Democrats would face a defeat not only in the White House but in recent elections, jeopardizing any chance of regaining the House of Representatives, the institution that most worries Democrats. Hairy.

“The Art of Power: My Story as the First Woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives” by Nancy Pelosi. (Simon & Schuster)

It was widely reported that Hairy played a key role behind the scenes in convincing Biden to resign. However, in a recent interview with CBS News, Hairy He said: “I was not the leader of any lobbying party. Let me say things that I did not do. I did not call a person. I did not call any person.”

That careful phrasing is typical of the constant calculation of Hairywhich is evident throughout The Art of Power.

This book adds new details about the attempts of Hairy to handle a Trump during his presidency, from his response to her late-night phone calls to asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, which allows for the removal of a president deemed “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

Pelosi decorated by Biden in May 2024. (Reuters/Hockstein)

But the book of Hairy It is more of an overview of the major episodes in American history in which Hairy played a role that an account of the last dramatic years. During his nearly four decades in Congress, he writes Hairyhas never viewed her role as a stepping stone, and believes other House members trust her because they know her advocacy for any office is motivated by political goals, not a personal agenda.

In 1987, the desire to Hairy Improving the lives of children and fighting the scourge of HIV/AIDS was “the main reason I ran for Congress,” she writes. Initially, she wasn’t interested in leadership roles in the House.

“What made me change my mind were four consecutive defeats in election years, from 1994 to 2000,” he writes. Hairy“I believed that Democrats needed to start winning elections for our country and the children of our country.”

And she won in many cases, being careful to bring bills to the House only when she was confident she had the votes to pass them.

Nancy Pelosi begins her new book with a plea for a return to the norms of common decency in politics

In this book, Hairy documents the discipline that led to her legislative success, while glossing over the issues for which she has been criticized: her resistance to reforms that would have prevented members from trading in individual stocks, for example, even when the wealth of the members themselves Hairy soared; and her determination to remain president when some younger members called for her to step aside, seeing her strict centrism as inadequate to confront a rising and increasingly radicalized right. Hairy In San Francisco, it is so safe that it has enjoyed a freedom few members enjoy to engage in legislative battles.

The Art of Powerwith its echo of the title of the book Trump, The Art of the Dealsomewhat more mercantilist, advocates the use of political power to promote the common good. As the subtitle suggests, “My story as the first woman speaker of the United States House of Representatives,” Hairy is proud of her position as an inspiration to young women. In many ways, The Art of Power It is the successor of the book of Hairy Know Your Power (2008), more light-hearted and stimulating, in which she urged younger women to follow her example by raising their voices and pursuing their dreams.

The tone of this new volume (she declines to call it a “memoir”) is much more sober, reflecting the changing political atmosphere and the extraordinary personal toll that public life has taken on her and her family. Yes, she still reflects on her own victories as the first female speaker, working on all fronts to secure legislation to shore up the economy after the 2008 financial collapse and — the achievement of which she is most proud — transforming health care delivery through the Affordable Care Act of 2010. But all of this comes with a caveat.

Nancy Pelosi rips into US President Donald Trump’s speech following his 2020 State of the Union address. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo)

“When I talk to women or other people who are thinking about running for office, I tell them it’s not a decision for the faint of heart… They need to know their ‘why.’ Why are you running?”

It was the risk that the ACA could be dismantled after the arrival of Trump to power in 2016, which convinced her to continue in politics, she writes Hairy. Eight years and two impeachments She then sees the former president as mentally unstable and a danger to the very future of the country.

“The threat to our democracy is real, present and urgent. The parable of January 6 reminds us that our precious democratic institutions are only as strong as the courage and commitment of those entrusted with their care.”

Hairy In both books, she recalls how her daughter Alexandra, then 16, encouraged her mother, then 46, to go into politics, telling her, “Mother, get a life!” Alexandra, now a documentary filmmaker with children of her own, accompanied her mother to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, documenting the riots in real time on video until they were sequestered under the protection of security guards at Fort McNair.

Supporters of former US President Donald J. Trump storm the US Capitol, on January 6, 2021, in Washington. (EFE/Jim Lo Scalzo/File)

During the attack on the Capitol, Hairy He remained calm, “already deeply aware of how dangerous it was Donald Trump“and willing to go into battle to stop him from causing further chaos. (“It has been clear to me from the beginning that he was an impostor,” she writes. Hairy about Trump“and that on some level, he knew it”).

She rose above the online demonization, verbal abuse and disturbing cries of “Where’s Nancy?” that reverberated through the Capitol on Jan. 6. But the attack on Paul clearly took a toll on her.

“From homemaker to House member to Speaker of the House, I certainly would never have broken through the marble ceiling without Paul’s support, encouragement and love,” she writes. Hairy“And he would never have done it if he thought that one day it would make him risk his own life.”

Whether or not you agree with the policy of Hairy, The Art of Power leaves readers with a disconcerting question: What will become of the political process in the United States if such brave people as Hairy decide that running for office is simply not worth the risk?

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Frances Stead Sellers is deputy editor of The Washington Post.

Fuente: The Washington Post.

Photo: REUTERS/ Leah Millis.