Democrats rose to their feet when Nancy Pelosi walked on stage at the United Center in Chicago for the Democratic national convention. They applauded, and then applauded louder. Pelosi waved before quieting the room.
The former House speaker began by expressing her gratitude to Joe Biden, calling his term “one of the most successful presidencies of modern times”. even though she had pushed subtly but forcefully for the president to step aside.
“Thank you, Joe,” she said, before turning to Kamala Harris, a fellow California Democrat who Pelosi proclaimed was “ready to take us to new heights”.
Pelosi may have retired as House Democratic leader, but the convention has proved – if proof were needed – that the veteran congresswoman remains one of the most consequentially and uniquely influential power brokers in the party who can make – or break – a US president.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pelosi, now House speaker emerita, was reluctant to reveal details of her conversation with Biden just over a month ago, during the deeply agonizing period before he decided to abandon his re-election bid and endorse Harris.
Speaking at the University Club of Chicago, in a room paneled with stained glass, Pelosi insisted that the monumental decision was Biden’s alone to make. But pressed by the Democratic strategist David Axelrod, she conceded that she believed it “essential” Democrats deny Donald Trump a second term. The cost was denying Biden one, too.
“I wanted very much to protect his legacy,” she said. But her highest priority was to win the election – and not just the White House, but the House and the Senate.
“A great sacrifice was made here,” said Pelosi, who will seek another term – her 20th – in November’s elections.
The former speaker appeared uncomfortable with the insinuation that she was a central figure in pushing Biden to end his re-election campaign, a decision that has transformed the presidential race. Harris’s ascent has electrified Democrats and unified the party behind the new presidential ticket, which includes her running mate, Tim Walz, a former Minnesota congressman who Pelosi had also advocated for.
“You have to make the decision to win, and you have to make every decision in favor of winning,” she said.
Biden has denied that any one person had pushed him out of the race. Speaking to reporters on Monday, after delivering what amounted to a farewell speech at the Democratic convention, he said: “No one influenced my decision. No one knew it was coming.”
Pelosi and Biden, devout Catholics who have known each other for decades, have not spoken since he ended his campaign. The rupture has weighed on Pelosi, she said: “I’ve cried over this. I’m sad about it.”
“But,” she added emphasizing the word, “But, we take an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States.”
In Chicago, Pelosi has been a presence at the many events surrounding the convention. On Wednesday she joked that she was doing nearly 10 events a day, taking something of a victory lap at the joy-filled convention she helped set in motion.
At almost every stop, she was received as a conquering hero among Democrats, who have long held the speaker in awe. During the roll call on Tuesday, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, declared he was from the “great state of Nancy Pelosi” and the actor Mindy Kaling introduced Pelosi the following night as “the mother of dragons” and a woman who was doing “brat before brat was brat”. Some attendees, including her allies in Congress, are sporting pins that call her “the godmother” – a nod to her influence.
During his remarks in Chicago, Biden said: “All this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down, it’s not true.”
Pelosi, the daughter of a longtime Baltimore mayor and student of the city’s brass knuckle politics, shared anecdotes from her new book, The Art of Power, about her extraordinary career arc that she described as: “housewife, House member, House speaker.”
She was the first – and so far only – female speaker of the House, and was the highest ranking woman in US politics until Harris was elected to serve as the nation’s first female vice-president.
“You have to be able to take a punch, you have to be able to throw a punch … for the children,” she said, a Pelosi-ism that drew laughs from the packed audience.
Asked by Axelrod whether Harris should emphasize the history-making possibility of her candidacy, Pelosi said breaking what Hillary Clinton once called the “highest hardest” glass ceiling in US politics was important, but not a political message.
The prospect of Harris becoming the first female president “brings tears to my eyes” Pelosi said, but it doesn’t necessarily bring “votes to the ballot box”.
“It’s icing on the cake,” she said. “But it ain’t the cake.”
Now considered one of the most powerful House speakers in modern political history, Pelosi said it was not her ambition to become a member of the party leadership when she first arrived in Washington DC.
“I became interested in running because we kept losing the elections, 94, 96, 98 and then it was 2000 I thought: ‘I’m so tired of losing,” she said.
Soon after, when she made her decision to run known, Pelosi said she was met with incredulity by male colleagues, who admonished her to wait her turn.
“Who said she could run?” Pelosi recalled them saying. She was told there was a “pecking order” and she wasn’t in it.
“They said: ‘These people have been waiting a long time,” Pelosi recounted. “So I said: ‘Was it over 200 years?’”
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Watch speeches from Bill Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, Josh Shapiro
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Here are the rising stars and politicians to watch this week
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