So deep was the animosity between Pelosi and Trump that it spilled onto the president’s 2020 State of the Union address, when he refused to shake her hand upon his arrival in the House chamber.
She stood up at the conclusion of his speech and, with a dramatic flai,r ripped in half a printed copy of the speech, later saying she did so because every page contained a “lie.”
Then Speaker Nancy Pelosi rips up Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union speech.Credit: Bloomberg
Republicans in 2021 expressed outrage at Pelosi when she rejected their recommendations of two staunch Trump defenders to serve on a special committee investigating Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
“Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts,” said then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
While Pelosi accepted partisan fighting as a part of the job, the growing anger in US politics took a toll on her family in 2022, when a right-wing conspiracy theorist broke into her San Francisco home and struck her husband Paul Pelosi over the head with a hammer. He later recovered.
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With her exit from the national stage at the end of 2026, when her 20th term expires, the House and Democrats nationwide will be losing one of their highest-profile liberals at a time of party upheaval.
But her move was not expected to scramble the party’s leadership races following the November 2026 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to recapture control of the 435-member House from Republicans.
Three years ago, Pelosi announced she was retiring from Democratic leadership, which included two four-year stints as speaker, from 2007-2011 and 2019-2023.
Relinquishing a job that is second in line to the presidency, after the vice president, opened the way for a younger generation of Democrats to take control after years of trying to climb the ladder to power.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York has assumed Pelosi’s former role as House Democratic leader, while Senator Chuck Schumer, 74, continues as the party leader in that chamber.
While there are tensions between Jeffries, 55, and more liberal Democrats, he is expected to be the likely choice for speaker if the party does capture control of the House.
Nancy Pelosi stood aside as the top Democrat in the House to make way for Hakeem JeffriesCredit: AP
“Nancy Pelosi is an iconic, legendary, transformational figure who has done so many things over so many years to make life better for so many people,” Jeffries said at a press conference on Monday when asked about Pelosi’s 2026 intentions.
During her tenure, Pelosi gained a reputation as a defender of human rights and an early advocate of gay rights at a time when AIDS swept through the world and especially in her hometown of
San Francisco in the 1980s and beyond.
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It was her work in helping then-President Barack Obama win enactment of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare,” that she sees as her greatest accomplishment.
Healthcare, she told reporters in 2022, “became our big issue and that will be the biggest thing that I’ve ever done in Congress.”
With her looming exit from Washington, Congress is losing a historic figure who many saw as governing with an iron fist as she rushed, at near breakneck speed, in her trademark stiletto shoes from meeting to meeting in the Capitol.
Democrats will also lose a prolific campaign fundraiser. “I had to raise like a million dollars a day – well at least five days a week,” she once told reporters.
It will also lose a Californian who proudly eschewed the state’s reputation for healthy eating. Pelosi insisted that she ate a hot dog with mustard and relish every day for lunch, plenty of Ghirardelli chocolates and a breakfast that generally included ice cream.
Reuters
