Pelosi's Power (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

[Music] Nancy Pelosi grew up in a household where power was like electricity and running water the first documentary on The Life and Legacy Nancy B came up in a historical era where we did see Politics as combat of the most powerful woman in American politics she's got this no holds bar attitude in the other side be damn Nancy Pelosi has never been accused of bringing a knife to a gunfight now on Front line Adam fer Pelosi's [Music] [Applause] [Music] power Nancy where you at Nancy [Music] where are you Nancy we're looking for you it was

like a monster movie or like a horror film Nancy where's Nancy oh look what we have here [Music] that was pretty [Music] ominous I knew that we really had a problem can I speak to Pelosi yeah we're coming that was an intent to harm in the voices check this out we are inside her n Pelos office I asked her if that made her afraid Nancy said that they would have had a fight on their hands they would Have had a b on their hands because she's a street fighter and then she lifts up her foot

and you know she always wears those 4 in stiletto heels and she points at her shoe and says besides I could have used these As [Music] Weapons National Guard has been called in to the capital the capital is secure now tensions are still high following the chaos at the capital our nation's Capital under a state of emergency under a Citywide lockdown law enforcement has surrounded and secured the US capital Nancy understood that it was the defilement of the Tabernacle of our democracy busloads of national guards outside the capital order has been restored the security perimeter

has been put back up approximately 1,800 troops are deployed around the capital perimeter to prevent any more violence there is to her a a real sacredness to It and everything that she knows in life January 6 upended that a president of the United States is responsible for an [Music] Insurrection good afternoon my friends we are in a very difficult place in our country as long as Donald Trump still sits in the white house she really saw him as so reckless and dangerous it was such a White Knuckle Moment whatever the rules said you just had

to hold down the fort and make sure this thing didn't get further out of hand alarmed Pelosi called the top General at the Pentagon Mark Miller unexpectedly Millie's executive officer came into the office and passed him a handwritten note speaker poosi would like to speak to you ASAP when you read that transcript you're taken into a moment of pure crisis in America history it is an Amazing historical moment to be in on the call with Pelosi and Millie what precautions are available Pelosi asked to prevent an unstable president from initiating ating military hostilities or from

accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike Pelosi at her core is a realist she believes the country needs to be protected she was going to do something he's crazy and what he did yesterday is further evidence of his Craziness Madam speaker Millie said I agree with you on everything Pelosi takes charge she goes to Schumer and she says we need to get Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment um we thought he didn't belong as president and so our goal was to reach the vice president and ask him to invoke the 25th Amendment which

allows the cabinet to replace the president under dire circumstances this was Dire and they call up Pence the phone rings and Rings we asked for the vice president we were waiting there for 20 minutes on the phone Pence won't take the call our thoughts were the vice president was scared and ducking it not living up to his responsibility Pelosi turns to Schumer and says if he's not going to take this call we need to move toward impeachment There was a total void of leadership in our country at that moment Nancy Pelosi was the one leading

the country in that moment she had to be the one dealing with this crisis and that's what she did she found herself in a singular position of Power with a singular responsibility at this crucial and dangerous moment and that was not an accident that was a long time coming Nancy Pelosi the first woman Speaker of the house second in line to the presidency at a perilous time the most powerful woman in American politics you really have to start with who she is she grew up in the Rough and Tumble of Baltimore politics where her father

was mayor so she's a very down to Earth politician and she's very tough she's very pragmatic in a lot of Ways but she's very determined she can be very magnetic and the sort of person you've naturally perceive as a leader and that people are willing to [Music] follow Mr gorbachov teared down this wall good drink good meat good god let's eat we cannot wait 10 years AIDS patients don't have enough time to live with Revelations that his wife Tammy was Addicted to prescription drugs here in San Francisco the Democrat Nancy Pelosi defeated Harry Brit a

city supervisor who is gay Pelosi is now favored to win a June runoff election against a republican Challenger The Honorable Nancy Pelosi would raise her right hand do you solemnly swear that when she arrived in Congress in 1987 there were 23 women in the 435 member House of Representatives that's a very very very Small group easy to get talked over easy to get ignored easy to get uh second guest and one uped all the time that's just the nature of it so help you God I you are a member of the House of Representatives first

time I met Nancy Pelosi she had just won an election I think it was a special election in San Francisco we had a little dinner group 10 or 12 we go to dinner Tuesday night usually at an Italian Restaurant they called it the gang and uh Tuesday nights they would always have dinner all kinds of conversations on Tuesday evenings I would often have dinner with a group of members of Congress the men never turned and asked what do you think never they would talk right over you talk right over you and there is that famous

conversation of of uh the guys talking about uh when their children were born and how difficult it was for Them so uh Nancy remembers it well all the men were discussing their experiences with childbirth meanwhile we women were sort of elbowing each other trying not to laugh we were all thinking well now surely they'll ask us it never happened 11 child births among us and not once did it occur to the men that we might have something to contribute on the subject when you think of the entrenched Fraternalism and crude sexism that's what she came

into a totally paternalistic Society with a lot of crudeness Nancy Pelosi was used to being surrounded by men she grew up the only girl among five brothers and a powerful father the newly elected mayor of Baltimore when her father won that first election for mayor of Baltimore they had a family portrait painted of Victory KN at the center of the portrait is not her Father the mayor or her mother or any of her brothers it's her they're all in dark clothes she's in this like iridescent white dress Nancy was the baby and the only girl

so um she was extraordinarily special she's on the front page of the newspaper the day after she's born it's a girl for the alexandros is the headline after you know they'd had five boys so there's never a time when she's not in the Spotlight the woman she would become had a lot to do with her mother she was known as Big Nancy she sees her mother being thwarted her mother who her whole life wanted to go to law school and never could and who wanted to buy some property in Ocean City Maryland and her husband

would let her so her mother was this restless and in some ways unsatisfied person my grandmother was a Tor to force behind the scenes she Was in some ways the tough one behind the scenes so that my grandfather could be more gregarious out in person for women raised in Pelos generation the message was that the highest thing you could aspire to and should aspire to um was married motherhood right and that wanting anything besides motherhood was a kind of violation of feminine expectation so when my mother wanted to go to Washington DC for college my

Grandfather said no Over My Dead Body and my grandmother apparently said Tom that can be arranged so my mother went off to college in Washington DC and then she met Paul Pelosi and when he asked her to marry him she said yes and so that was sort of it in those days you got married and you followed your husband and you started having babies he pursued a career in finance and moves to San Francisco she was happy to fall in love with Paul Pelosi and to have five children in six years which as she says

is a pretty remarkable feat she called it the Catholic way [Music] you've come a long way baby introducing New Virginia Slims the slim cigarette for women only I stand before you today as a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America it's live from The Astrodome in Houston Texas the tennis Battle of the sex's Billy Jean King versus Bobby rigs a down with sexism a CE fear must not deter us now for the Equal Rights Amendment represents the highest American ideal our choice our next vice president Geraldine Ferraro in that period Nancy Pelosi

never lost her interest in politics Through The Years in which she was Having babies and raising them as a stay-at-home mother she described on Halloween going with the stroller Brigade pample Apartments wherever there was a meeting of Democratic party officials at a barbecue or a fundraiser or a veterans parade we were there all five of us um loaded up in the car and my mom driving us around so she was the key volunteer in 1987 with the kids grown an opportunity an open congressional Seat she'd follow in her Father's Footsteps run for office just one

thing you need to know about Nancy Nancy is more delandro than she is Pelosi and she's always her father's daughter Nancy Pelosi is more comfortable with power than any other person I have ever covered she grew up in a household where power was like electricity and running water from the day she was born she was in a family that was accustomed to Seeking power holding power and using power and it's in it's in Her Bones I asked her once well would you learn from your father she didn't hesitate she said I learned how to count

she was trained at the ward level about how to count votes how to get votes and how to produce a [Music] result she was also from an early age involved in uh in in the favor file that Was kept in the Parlor of their Row House on Al Marl Street in their house when someone would knock on the door my mom from a very young age would know how to get somebody a hot meal a job how to get somebody in jail or out of jail depending on the circumstance and then their name would be

kept on file for when the next election came around and the mayor needed a favor in return so she was in charge of that from the time she was About 11 and when she decided in 1987 to run for this congressional seat she was taking the role her father had played as the candidate herself she believed from her years watching her father get elected the campaign was one on the ground we have a masterful organization plan that it was the work you did block by block we were attempting to reach 15,000 people by the end

of this weekend Finding your volunteers can I tell you a little bit about Nancy Pelosi finding each individual voter how are you I'm Nancy Pelosi and to Congress I remember her brother Tommy flying out to San Francisco because her mother and father wanted to know how to campaign was going missy good morning so he came out he uh surveyed everything he went home and reported to his mother and father uh that she had a superb ground Operation and superb it [Applause] was join me and the president in working for fundamental change in America's Health Care

system I felt I had a duty to report I have no personal bandata against Clarence Thomas I did not have sexual relations with that woman Miss lnky I can hear you the rest of the world hears you and the people who knocked these buildings down we'll hear all of us Soon the Democrats make a little history of their own by voting for Nancy Pelosi of California the first female party leader ever Pelosi has spent her 15 years in the house crusading for Liberal causes abortion rights AIDS funding the environment and Pelosi supporters say having her

at the top of the party will energize Women Voters who are key to democratic victories she truly believed that that old generation of bulls of white dudes automatically entitled to Become the whip the leader the speaker enough of that that that just represented a different time in American history it was her time and at 862 Nancy Pelosi rebeled in making history I'm not finished yet I've been waiting over 200 years for Pelosi winning a leader race could be the easy part then she'll try to unite a party that's in disarray by 2006 the Democrats had

lost six Congress elections in a Row as minority leader Pelosi was determined to change that one thing that Nancy Pelosi has never been accused of is like bringing a knife to a gunfight if the game is everybody to their Corners then we're going to play that game and we're going to win that game Nancy bissy came up in a historical era where you increasingly did see Politics as combat so she always said you know every morning I I put on a suit of armor eat nails for breakfast and go Out and do battle to help

lead the battle to win back the house she elevated a Brash young Congressman Rah Emanuel that was her wingman and it was about winning that was what we were about it was about taking the majority and winning I said to do this I'm going to have to push in a way that is going to ruffle a lot of people she goes that's why I'm selecting you It was absolutely a brilliant thing to do because Ram is a heat seeking missile much like Pelosi when he gets a Target in his mind he's [Music] Relentless she was

making procedural changes to the way that the caucus operated in order to enforce more party unity in order to get the Democrats more unified Pelosi's blunt style is polarizing but she's used it to pull off something nobody thought was possible Organizing the Congressional Democrats under her leadership they voted as a block against the Republicans almost 90% of the time it was kind of shocking actually for Pelosi early on in her tenure as a leader to go to democratic members and ream them out to chide them for co-sponsoring bills with members of the other party Nancy

Pelosi send the word out to her members that they shouldn't be cooperating at all with the other side Just just like she didn't because they didn't want to give our members any shot at claiming legislative victories in the political game she's no holds bar politician that was about partisan Warfare 100% of the time Rah Emanuel helped put that on steroids for her on the floor of the house you have called your Republican colleagues that immoral corrupt you say they're running a criminal Enterprise well actually when I called them those Names I was being gentle they

much worse things I could have said about them she learned her politics in Baltimore Republicans were irrelevant you do not need to worry about the Republican party in Baltimore then she moves to San Francisco you don't need to worry about Republicans very much if you're going to be a politician in San Francisco it is a democratic game when it came to Republicans in Washington she saw a stark Clash of values as she made clear in interviews with Frontline over the years well I think it should say something about the the uh right-wing ideological anti-government attitude

of the Republicans clean air clean water food safety Public Safety public education Public Health Medicare Medicaid Social Security they do not believe in the public role they don't believe bless their hearts they do what They believe they act upon their belief beliefs and they do not believe in [Music] this but she needed more to beat the Republicans in the 2006 midterms she found it in Bush's Iraq war a war she'd opposed from the beginning It's the final word Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction the United States invasion of Iraq is proving to be

a Pandora's Box now adding to the crisis of credibility allegations Of torture daily death toll has risen dramatically over the past year in Baghdad just how long are US soldiers going to be in the thick of this fight she concluded early on based on conversations with some sort of branding experts that the most important thing to do was drive down Bush's popularity drive down the Republicans popularity cover them in mud in the Battle of Iraq the United States and our allies have Prevailed as of today 736 soldiers have died in Iraq nearly 600 of them

since the president stood before a sign that said mission accomplished it was very clear that the war was going to become a line of demarcation and she also saw that this was going to divide the country and it was better for the Democratic party to be on the right side of that issue which was in opposition the president has dug us into a deep hole in a rock it is time For him to stop digging she saw early on that the harder she fought the more attractive she was as a leader for her caucus members

so they could go home and represent to their constituents that they're fighting hard every single day and not given an inch the president of the United States says stay the course stay the course I don't think so Mr President it's time to face the facts she became the face and the symbol of an aggressive Progressive Democratic Party she became a talking point on every single talk show because she was the lightning rod she was a very polarizing figure greetings and welcome back rushland ball Nancy Pelosi saying that our president is an idiot the clown or

whatever it's just unseemly Pelosi makes a remark ably Rich Target for the right wing Pelosi and her crew have been trying to undermine the troops since we Went into ackq she is a woman who is challenging the president and the head of the Republican Party Nancy Pelosi was stalking bush like she wanted to have an affair all these Democrat women wear red on the State of the Union ever wonder what that's all about within a capitalist white patriarchy Nancy Pelosi is a person who is not supposed to have the authority to talk back to the

president of the United unit States during a war right so she is a Tremendous threat the long 200-year National nightmare without a woman at the top is now over this is a Triumph of estrogen she's been brutally demonized brutally I think that toughens her up I think that makes her even tougher but I know it must be hard I think we are now ready to make a major projection the Democrats will in fact win control of the House of Representatives one of her modus Operandi is basically that you can't do anything unless you win elections

right you have to have the power in order to exercise the power it's now my privilege to present the gabble of the United States House of Representatives to the first woman speaker in our history The Gentle lady from California Nancy [Applause] Pelosi before we move forward uh because There's so many children here and I wanted to invite as many of them who wanted to come forward to come join me up here I know my own grandchildren will let's hear it for the children we're here for the children she always says that her sort of load

star is the children the children the children she always talks about her top three priorities are the children the children the children children children children that's when I came to Congress The children she always repeats it the children the children appla these children again she describes loving motherhood she describes loving having babies but it's also true that Nancy Pelosi has been one of the most powerful women in American politics right there is an attractiveness in presenting yourself as I'm a mom I'm the happiest I've ever been as a mom for these children our children and

for all of America's Children the house will come to order it's a way of sanding down the edges of I'm the most powerful woman you've ever dealt [Music] with the stock market dropped by hundreds of points right from the open dropped 45% Tuesday after the second largest financial institution ever to fail and the number of US Banks in danger of failing is gases up food prices up stocks way way way way down AIG plunging at one point they were down 70% now down about 50% on the trading session and this is Defcon 4 whatever this

was the complete nightmare by Wednesday basically had a complete shutdown of the world Capital Market it's just um no this is absolute Terror means the turmoil in the mortgage Market is far from Over seing the risks of a recession Rising now some say they see one lurking right around the corner Nancy picked up the phone and called at That time uh Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson and she said I I'm I'm not comfortable with what I'm reading I think that we need to meet can you come to my office tomorrow morning at 9:00 so

that you can breathe house Democratic Leadership on what's going on and how we can be helpful and he said Madam speaker tomorrow morning will be too late on Thursday late afternoon we go to Nancy Pelosi's office and there's a meeting of the senior legislators from both parties and both House and Senate sitting in that room with Hank Paulson saying to us in a very measured tones no hyperbole no excessive adjectives that unless you act the financial system of this country and the world will melt down in a matter of days they came in describe a

financial meltdown of epic proportions and when uh that was finished uh the uh chairman of The FED said if we do not act now we will not have an economy by Monday there was like this everybody was trying to pinch themselves or get the cobwebs out of their eyes what did you pson wanted $700 billion to bail out Wall Street the politics of this were very fraught they knew people weren't going to like it the conservatives hated it You're spending all this money you're meddling with the free market the Liberals hated it you're bailing out

George W bush who's done all these irresponsible things and caused this to happen why not make him pay for his mistakes we're two months before the election not only for a new president a new Senate new know if we wanted to we could have just thrown this at George Bush You' have let it collapsed on George Bush's watch it's two months Before the election George Bush and the Republicans let him go serious good evening we just had what I believe was a very productive meeting where even though there were Republicans she understood the gravity of

the crisis and saw it as a matter of of Duty really um and and responsibility that transcended partisan politics speaker Pelosi told John Boehner her Republican counterpart You're going to have to put up a 100 votes uh and we'll put up the rest the only way to do it was to sort of hold hands and jump this is the sort of classic bipartisan situation where if everybody agrees to do the unpopular thing no one can be attacked for it the billion dooll package to bail out the US financial industry is moving ahead through Congress the

United States Congress is set to vote on the biggest corporate bailout in history but Banner's Republicans were in Revolt there's a bill here but this drama is not over there are they weren't going to go along with him President Bush or Nancy Pelosi I rise in opposition to the emergency economic stabilization act America you should be outraged about Washington is about to do it is an unprecedented and un a and unacceptable expansion of federal power please please don't betray this nation's great history and then the vote goes down and the Stock market crashes as it

becomes clear that the Congress doesn't have the votes to pass this bail out and she's watching this happen they didn't pass it they did not pass it and she mutters to herself we're finished and I see that the Dow Traders are standing there watching in amazement and I don't blame him and the Dow is now down 697 traitor saying this is the craziest day they have ever seen the lesson is you can only depend on your Own votes you can only depend on your own votes if somebody says they're delivering other people you can't trust

that you have to have what Nancy pissy calls the speaker secret wh whip list that she won't reveal to anyone that experience where a Republican president and a Republican leader cannot deliver the votes to rescue the country from economic Abyss was a turning point if she was going to lead she was Going to have to do it by herself she couldn't count on her colleagues particularly in the Republican caucus to deliver Pelosi went back to work using her power to persuade enough Democrats to help pass the bill and bail out the banks the financial crisis

probably was seminal in her development as a leader she watched the evolution of the Republican caucus and watched as it became more difficult to deal with and more willing to grandstand for the Republican base she had very little patience for thater yeah so what if the guy threw a shoe at me it's an ugly little world up there in Washington is it it's not fun but it's not for the faint of heart to be there it's what happens when you see a guy from the other side and you guys look at each other and you

ever like walk up to somebody just be like let's go outside my brother let's take this no just right there Go I love those hockey moms you know they say the difference between a hockey mom and a Pitbull lipstick now Barack Obama takes the Reigns of government with Democrats also in charge of Congress by as we've just seen a hefty majority Democrats holding big majorities in both the House and Senate that means when Democrats are united Republicans will be powerless to stop them Madam speaker the president of the United [Music] [Applause] States we all remember

Obama said we're not red America or blue America we're one America we the United States of America and that was the campaign he ran let's turn the page on this ugly chapter of purely partisan politics let's try to bring the country together and unify the country Madam Speaker Mr Vice President members of Congress what is required now is for this country to pull together confront boldly the challenges we face B and take responsibility for our future once more the test case for bipartisanship healthcare reform we can no longer afford to put healthc care reform on

hold we can't afford to do [Music] [Applause] it it's time he could do it without Republicans but he wanted to win them over Nancy Pelosi knew better it was clear that she believed that he was naive it was clear that she believed that he was too trusting too confident and she was telling him these Republicans aren't going to help you she had spent years in the hot House of Washington Politics as became more And more and more partisan so her expectations were low the new president courted one Republican after another Obama believed that if you

were going to do health care which was a major social policy it was better to have bipartisanship for its [Music] legitimacy Nancy knew better than he did at that point I mean she had been so conditioned by that time that you Couldn't trust them they couldn't keep their word why are you going down this path when we know that they cannot be trusted the Republicans were very clever in what they did they pretended that they were interested in this I call it the dance of the seven Bales I'm going to I'm going to be there

and then I'm not and then I'm going to be there and I'm not now you see it now you don't could have two more weeks three more Weeks Hanukkah you know every holiday Halloween Thanksgiving but it was a tactic and a successful one on the part of the Republicans she was so determined to keep Republicans out of the process and so emotionally negative it wasn't Obama's approach that turned them off it was actually Nancy Pelosi's approach so at that point the White House was following what Nancy Pelosi Wanted to do and jamming everything they wanted

they weren't getting our help when Obama would give on some issue she immediately spoke up we're not doing that that's not coming out of the house every time that he would say I'm reaching out to Republicans she would publicly say no we aren't and Republicans were very angry and they were very bitter about it but the reality was they weren't going to work with her there were no Republicans that Were going to ultimately support this Across America that anger was exploding God will take care of healthcare get dirty th the whole point of this is

to get everybody enrolled in the government health care plan got a plan that increases deficit spending when we already have trillion dollar deficit radical communist and socialist that something is not right with the health care plan we now have leftist radicals in charge of your Healthcare Decisions rather than doctors we're hanging by a friend democrat or republican for whoever Senator or Congressman vote for this bill we will vot you out there's a bill out of the House of Representatives put together under speaker Pelosi's leadership I'm I'm uh I'm I'm uh I would not vote for

that there with public opinion turning back in Washington healthc care reform was now imploding even among Democrats Pelosi headed for the White House the political advisers within the White House from Emanuel and David Axel Rod thought it's time to cut our losses get something small done so we can kind of save face and NY P says wait a second we've been trying this for a generation no we're not going to do that we're going to do what we set out to do we're going to do as much as we set out To do it was

really in this climactic meeting where she said in front of everyone Mr President and I know there are people telling you to take the nambi pambi approach I'm here to tell you we can still get this done she basically said to Obama you can go big and I tell you I can deliver this or you can go small and you can do it yourself Nancy Pelosi in being the first woman to be Speaker of the House wants To remind the Obama White House that she has the power to get big things done we go through

the gate the gates closed we'll go over the fence the fence is too high we'll whole vault in if that doesn't work we'll parachute in but we're going to get healthc care reform passed for the American people when Nancy Pelosi says okay the ball's at the 5 yd line I am not going to Blink on all of this it took Republicans by surprise and clearly she was the driving force Not the sitting president of the United States once again as with the bailout she exercised her power to lock down Democratic votes she understands that sometimes

she has to muscle lawmakers she understands that working with Democrats means that she has to sort of twist arms and really get people um to to get on the same page by by by force when I would walk into her office there'd be chocolates on a table in Front of you from from her beloved Jord Deli which is a chocolate uh uh manufacturer in her District but there'd also be a stack of baseball bats signed by the San Francisco Giants the message was we can do this sweet and easy way or we can do this

the hard way but we will do it for Pelosi the time for bipartisanship with Republicans was over it's a huge piece of legislation and it is extremely unusual that not a single Republican in the house or the Senate Ultimately voted for the healthcare bill the Democrats healthc care overhaul finally a series of votes last night put it over the top 219 to 212 uh no votes are Republicans all Democrats no Republicans we are [Applause] done I'm pretty confident I'm speaking for the president from the White House perspective it would not have been a bill with

the president's signature if Nancy bosi wasn't the Speaker of the House [Applause] one of the extraordinary things about Nancy Pelosi is that she can be aggressively partisan but also willing to say I'm going to do this even if it may cost me an election she literally put her speakership on the line by pushing through [Music] Obamacare once Nancy Pelosi was safely confined to Liberal San Francisco when I would go to dinner with House Republicans in 200920 they would tell me they wanted to make Pelosi a villain Pelosi has grown into a power hungry Goliath defying

let's make her the target for the 2010 mid stoer who can save America you the Pennsylvania voter vote May 18th the day we fight back that's our goal make Pelosi the enemy want to put their Breaks on Pelosi vote against Roy to stop Nancy bosi you have to replace Jean Taylor politics is about personality instead of working for us he's working for Nancy Pelosi it's also about fear don't let Chad Cy and Nancy Pelosi play games with our money and it's about galvanizing people and getting people excited about something any kuster isn't one Nancy Pelosi

enough Ben Chandler Pelosi's lap dog so on the Republican side you have this real Effort um this coordinated effort to to really make house Speaker Nancy Pelosi a villain job number one fire Nancy Pelosi that ought to be job number one let's face it Nancy Pelosi is one of the most unpopular political figures across the Spectrum Democratic party will be destroyed destroyed if it Embraces Miss Pelosi's Vision number one she was a woman I don't want Pelosi making calls on plastic surgery cuz you look at her if she was pulled any tighter she'd be An

unopened Brun schagger tube number too she was a smart woman all right if she is in her heart a nice woman she has a heart no I'm number three she was a smart woman from San Francisco she's a San Francisco liberal but but do you think she's actually crazy I doubt there's a lot of ey that gets stirred up about the that particular combination this is an ABC News election update a big night for Republicans on This election day Republicans have indeed taken control of the House of Representatives that means the speaker Nancy Pelosi will

have to step down from that position Obamacare was the thing that carried us into the majority and Nancy was a big part of allowing that to happen she's got this uh no holds bar attitude that she's going to go run the tables and the other side be damned uh and that came to cost her the majority in 2010 outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said despite the Democrat that's huge loss she has no regret on television she was pressed to reveal how she felt about the loss the president said he was sad it was

sad and for you sad bruising well it's sad in terms of my colleagues who won't be coming back for me I'm a professional Pelosi's approach has been one of extreme control she simply did not express or share her interior life with the public that you Know you ever felt it you didn't feel well I felt it for my colleagues I felt it for the American people because I do believe that there's a distinction she decided it was not relevant to her career and that it would not in any way help her to be sharing her

feelings it's just a strategic approach that she took so I believe that there was a lot talk to ourselves in moments when it feels bruised it feels well let me tell you when I get time for That I'll call you and I'll let you know how it feels she's not a whiner and why isn't she a whiner look at where she grew up look at her political grounding and with her father look at her background in Baltimore she knows what politics is she's known it her entire life she knows it can hurt she knows it

can be brutal and she was taught you don't want about it and she doesn't for the next 8 years she would Be relegated to the minority and Congress but she wouldn't give up Colin Kaepernick 49ers quarterback nelt instead of standing during the national anthem the first time that a major party has nominated a Woman for president when you're a star they let you do it you can do anything whatever you want grab them by the a sea of protesters mostly women one of the largest inauguration related demonstrations in US History an unusual and sometimes wild

day at the Trump White House following a weekend of new beginnings new controversies president Trump is making some waves on the first business day of his presidency Trump is scheduled to meet with Congressional leaders for the first time Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle here at the White House very very busy Monday here once again Nancy Pelosi was the only woman in the Room when Trump took over in that unexpected victory in 2016 Republicans were then holding the house and the Senate and while Nancy Pelosi was no longer the speaker she was the

minority leader in the house she was the face of the democratic opposition to Trump and she had a weak hand but she played it pretty well how would the president begin this very historic meeting and what this means to him it was a Moment Pelosi recounted in a recent interview with Frontline puts his hands on the desk like the slouches into the desk and said you know I won the popular vote because 5 million people voted who were not legal to vote and so I won the popular vote so I thought I would take the

opportunity to tell the president that what he was saying was not true there is no data no truth no facts No evidence to support what you're saying she made it very clear very early on that she had the the toughness the tenacity to stand up to him uh and to do so in some very blunt terms she is a partisan Warrior and she saw in Trump somebody to come up against is an equal he's the president she's the Democratic leader somebody he has to reckon with and she didn't give up any opportunity to make a

real spectacle of that so then the Press Converged they said what did you think when he did that I said well I prayed for him but more importantly I prayed for the United States of America imagine abusing that first historic meeting for politics she had never met a president who would just lie she was just genuinely appalled by Trump from that first meeting it started pretty low and it went downhill from there you [Applause] Know it is time to drain the swamp in Washington DC Trump came to Washington attacking the establishment we are led by

very stupid people the swamp he called it it's a corrupt and crooked system symbolically Nancy Pelosi is the institutionalist she represents everything people hate about the system everything people want to smash using the bluntest instrument available to them even if it's Donald J Trump it's time to clean up our nation's Capital Pelosi wasted no time demonstrating her power in the Washington way with a campaign to retake the house the day after the election we didn't agonize we organized it goes back to the lesson she learned as a child in her household you know politics is

a lot about learning how to count she wanted to get to 28 and above I don't think that what president said is a reflection of our values she's doing the strategy She's doing the fundraising she's flying around the country constantly campaigning for candidates we don't agonize we we have to win this election she has this incredibly prodigious ability to raise money for people who are running for office and money is the coin of the realm and she's the best at what she does for the first time ever in an off-ear election the Democrats significantly outraged

the Republicans And that's because of Nancy Pelosi Hillary Clinton and NY Pelosi and they have a message so much much money came in that in the last 3 weeks they didn't even know what to do with it you will make the difference for America please vote I've never seen anything like it and it's because of Nancy Pelosi Democrats picked up more than two dozen House Seats to take control for the first time in eight years the big day for female candidates at least 114 Women won their races she knows how to count votes she knows

nothing else she certainly knows how to count votes [Applause] but with the victory a surprising challenge to her power it came from within her own ranks it's largely forgotten how perilous a position Nancy Pelosi was in and whether she was actually going to become the speaker was an open question after the 2018 midterms Nancy Pelosi faces a a real push um to possibly retire possibly not become house speaker you hear Democrats sort of grumbling aloud about whether or not a new generation of democrats should be allowed to take the Reigns of power would be climate

refugees when will you Embrace a green New Deal when speak more than 200 protesters demonstrated outside her Washington DC office their protests gathered inside pel's office including congresswoman Elect Alexandria Ocasio Cortez from New York Ocasio Cortez first day on the hill uh and she chose to join a protest T outside of Nancy pel's office about climate change I just want to let you all know how proud I am of each and every single one of years after that 2018 election you saw a newer generation of democratic members come in they quickly became known as the

squad the squad is Alexander Casio Cortez Diana Presley ilhan Omar Rashida TB and they Really represent the diversity of not just ethnicity a background and lived experience that has been so missing in a Congress that is majority white that's majority millionaire unsurprisingly they were a little skeptical of Pelosi they did see her as the first woman to ever be able to reach the place of power and influence but at the same time they also thought that she was representative of an older Generation they had different ideas about how to do things in the house they

wanted more bold action on some things whereas Pelosi and Congressman Hoyer and Congressman kurn they were seen as more of the Old Guard more traditional not on board with some of the new ways of doing things that the new members wanted the challenge to Pelosi's leadership extended to moderate Democrats too we need a new vision we Need a forward-looking vision it's time I think for a new generation of leadership who is the leader of the democratic party who is the leader of the democratic party yeah that's what she asked she asked you that does my

silence say something I mean I this is this is the challenge that we have right now I don't think that people uh are looking in at at uh leader Pelosi with all due respect to her and saying you know here is the future of our party But this is bigger than there is a push to get her out of there even though she carry them back to Power some house Democrats privately meet in the days after the election and say hey we have an opening here maybe we can get someone else to step in are

you supporting leader Peli for speaker at this point this you know we'll see you later thanks we tout diversity in this part there's no diversity in our leadership you Basically have is the establishment surrounding our current leadership and the American people want change and we're going to try to give it to them and this is all about moving on to the next uh generation of leadership and Trump sees that Nancy peloi is weak at that moment he has not a lot of knowledge about politics but he has an instinct for the weakness in his adversaries

I can get Nancy Pelosi as many votes as she wants in order for her To be Speaker of the House Trump is literally saying like hey Nancy you know you need some help getting over the line there we'll we'll help you out it would have been infuriating to Nancy Pelosi Trump continued to taunt Pelosi in an oval office meeting in front of the television cameras okay thank you very much it's a great honor to have Nancy Pelosi with us and Chuck schummer Trump had this tactic where he liked to set People off balance he'd sometimes

keep the cameras in the room people are not the mor we've gained in the Senate Nancy we've gained in the Senate excuse me did we win the Senate we won the Senate let me say this we win let Dakota this is the most unfortunate thing we came in here in good faith uh and and and we're entering into a this kind of a discussion in the public view but it's not bad n no transparency I know it's pela keeps trying to sort of get it to Stop like do we need to do this in front

of the cameras much I also know that you know nanc is in a situation where it's not easy for her to talk right now and I understand that he questioned her strength because he wanted to try to embarrass her on national television and what Nancy Pelosi does is what she's really good at and that is to turn the moment around and say actually I am the one with the power in this situation Mr President please don't Characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats who just won a

big victory election there sort of this reality TV show Playing out and she somehow is the person who seems to be the most powerful in the room even though she's at the Oval Office speaking to the president of the United States this isn't this is about the the security of our country to take an oath to protect and defend and we don't want To have that mischaracterized by anyone closi had his number I agree with you Donald Trump to this day does not realize how embarrassed he was by her how the public looked at this

and even if they didn't like her they still thought way to go sister let me just say one thing the fact is you do not have the votes in the house Nancy I do and we need B find out thanks guys thank you where just speak up to the man you just swatted him away with a single statement You owned him head up up when Peli comes out she's got this swingy red coat on she's got sunglasses on she looks like James Bond she looks like she is in control of the world you don't have

the VES you don't have the VES I caught her and I'm like Mom you're an internet meme she said what are you talking about I said no you're an internet meme what you said in the meeting people are already saying they Want to have that tattooed on their arm they're already turning it into t-shirts and then your coat your coat already has a Twitter account and it did really cement her reputation as someone who could go Toe to Toe with with Donald Trump in so many ways the contrast with Trump made people see her in

a new light she was such a contrast with him as a woman but also as an institutionalist who was a a stickler for the rule of law As someone who believed in building up government rather than tearing it down you quickly find that Democrats after their grumbling coales around Nancy Pelosi and it's once again a moment where she shows that she has the power to hold on to the speakership I extend my hand of friendship to every member of this body and to the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi I extend to you this gavel

Thank you her power secure she sent a message to the squad if the left doesn't think I'm left enough so be it I think it was probably ging to her that here you come you haven't achieved anything yet you don't know anything about policy when I've spent all of these years learning the institution learning the policy learning how to pull the levers I think it had to be calling uh and and sort of ironic uh at the end of the day all These people have their public whatever and their Twitter world but they didn't have

any following they're four people and that's how many votes they got Nancy Pelosi has to deal with something no one's ever had to deal with you have people coming to Congress on both sides who are basically building Brands lucrative Brands marketable Brands these are celebrity politicians who've never cast a vote and don't feel Like they should have to you know bow to any institutional Norms that public whatever is called public sentiment there was this difference of opinion about power and how to use it and um how to get it you had the squad members who

just wanted to come in and boom boom boom the progressive caucus in the building kind of ramrod their way through Congress but speaker poosi was more of a tactician more of a Negotiator Pelosi was saying I know how to count votes we have a majority we can afford to lose those votes the bigger thing that she was trying to say is they don't influence the party they can try they can be loud but they're not going to change the legislation her message was clear that she didn't view them as serious that she was saying we're

the adults doing legislation over here and you might have some beautiful Ideas but you're not part of this process this is CNN breaking news we're following breaking news on President Trump's contacts with Ukraine about the phone call that inspired a whistleblower complaint president Trump makes this phone call to the president of Ukraine where he pretty clearly says he wants to get dirt on Joe Biden president pressed Ukraine's leader about eight times eight times in that single call it is a gift in some ways to Nancy Pelosi because Here is an act that is so outrageous

that Nancy Pelosi is forced to act Pelosi thought that this was an outrageous act for president to commit and that um there was no choice but to go to impeachment today I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry the president must be held accountable no one is above the law Trump takes it personally Impeachment chops the relationship in half that if there was any thread left it's gone after impeachment dear Madam speaker you are violating your Oaths of office you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution and you are declaring

open War on American democracy he says she's despicable he rails against her mental acuity every name in the book is hurled at Pelosi by Trump because Nancy Pelosi is grossly incompetent she's totally incompetent Nancy Pelosi should be impeached these people are crazy and crazy Nancy Pelosi nervous Nancy [Music] nervousness thank you do you hate the president M speaker I don't hate anybody house you don't hate any not anybody in the world so don't don't accuse me I did not accuse you I asked the question we saw her become more Comfortable in her own skin more

assertive perhaps less tolerant of dissent perhaps less tolerant of criticism she certainly was comfortable asserting power when it came to Trump and as a Catholic I resent you're using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me I don't hate anyone I was raised in a way that is full a Heart full of love and always prayed for the president and I still pray for the president I pray for the president all The time so don't mess with me when it comes to words like [Music] that hello Democrats would line up behind her to impeach

Trump but that wasn't enough to overcome Republican opposition in the Senate this is what the end result is [Applause] [Music] Trump really was even more emboldened in part from his feeling of Vindication and that he could do whatever he wanted with impunity the partisan Warfare between the president and Pelosi escalated [Music] Madam speaker the president of the United States he's walking up he's going to be uh I guess shaking hands with Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of the House let's let's watch this moment it looks like she went to shake His hand and he and he

did not he did not take it there's almost never a moment that a speaker of the house knows all eyes are going to be on them in the way that she knew in that moment it's a trump State of the Union you get the shot of the president the vice president and the speaker the state of our Union is stronger than ever before we know that political media analyzes every eye roll Every decision to stand or not stand to clap or not clap so she knows every eye is on even her most subtle [Applause] gesture

we will never let socialism destroy American Health Care you could just sense Pelosi feeling Tighter and angrier and and just watching him perform all of that is kind of coming out you know in the house chamber and it's Nancy Pelosi's chamber She's the speaker of the house here tonight is a special man beloved by millions of Americans Rush limal thank you for your Decades of tireless Devotion to our country Rush limox this conservative radio host who of course had been attacking Nancy Pelosi for for a long time so you know with Pelosi there's there's stupid

and then there's Botox stupid I don't think that she is blessed with a tremendous IQ I don't think this Is The Brightest Bulb put pictures of Pelosi in every cheap motel room that will keep birth rates down because that picture will keep a lot of things down he's also someone who had called women prostitutes who had said all sorts of things that so many people saw to be racist feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the main street if we are going to pay for your contraceptives we want you to

post the videos so we can all watch Just [Music] going I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country's highest civilian honor the presidential medal of freedom I don't know how she sat there I don't know how she did it to have that in your face and to listen to him and see Rush lmba laed she must have felt totally disrespected Totally ignored in her position and disrespected in her house The Best Is Yet To Come thank you God bless you and God bless America thank you very [Music] much did you

just see how speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up the speech right behind the president and it looked like she was sort of ripping up the advanced copy of the speech this is a maximum moment of Fury I think for Nancy Pelosi if you want a visual from now on for history of how Washington broke you can do no worse I think than to have this image of the Speaker of the House literally ripping up the words of the president of the United [Music] States the first case of the deadly Chinese Corona virus a tragic turn in

the Corona virus outbreak the first death from the disease here in the United States say her name tayor say her name tayor MERS gathered in front of the Supreme Court to pay tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg supr Court Justice left you shut listen who is on your list Joe you got the wait a minute you get the final word m well it's hard to get any word in with this clown excuse me this hey let me just say no no no uh whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light supposing you brought the light inside

The body can which you can do either threw the skin or uh in some other way if you count the legal votes I easily win if you count the illegal votes they can try to steal the election from [Music] [Applause] us NY where you at NY where are you Nancy we're looking for you she had to be Shaken that was probably the worst thing she had ever ever experienced during her time in Congress and in leadership to have a full-blown physical assault on the institution that you Revere and respect and to think that the staff

and the people people who work there and the members were threatened and their lives were in danger there were some of us that were Hiding in a uh in a room and she came to that room and she announced that we were going to be going back into session that it was essential for the people of our country and the people around the world to um see that our democracy uh would continue speaker Pelosi was genuinely horrified horrified and and frightened for the future of our democracy and that sounds grandiose but it's true the aim

was to stop a Constitutional responsibility to stop Congress from certifying the results of the election the reaction you saw from speaker Pelosi was genuine today a shameful assult was made on our democracy to those who strove to deter us from our responsibility you have failed to those who engaged in the gleeful desecration of our Temple of democracy Justice will be done it was a horrific Event so many people's lives were put at stake and people died people died there and that wasn't anything Nancy Pelosi was going to take lightly it was a moment of profound

fury on paly's part she felt that she had been warning and warning and warning about Donald Trump in the moment it really felt like this was the last straw even for some of his closest allies all I can say is uh Count me out enough is enough uh drop an eye we've had a hell of a journey I hate it to end this way oh my God I hate it there was a widespread sense that January 6th might have really been the breaking point for Donald Trump uh with the Republican Party the mob was fed

lies they were provoked by the president she thought that McConnell and McCarthy finally saw what she had seen the president Bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob Rers he should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was speaker Pelosi is set to put a motion to the second impeachment of President Trump impeachment for an unprecedented second time Pelosi seized the moment a growing number of Republicans now joining calls to remove president TR it took only a week speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has no issues with impeaching the president a second time

accusing the president of willfully inciting violence Against the government speaker Nancy Pelosi calling him deranged and dangerous she did think it was a statement they needed to make whatever the short-term consequences of a second impeachment she wanted to put the stain of a second impeachment on Trump for all history forgive me if I don't buy Nancy Pelosi's crocodile tears about how brokenhearted she is about her second impeachment of President Trump he's the Initial shock and horror and dismay inevitably begins to fade well the whole thing is just politic it's a power grab by Nancy Pelos

she keeps violating the Constitution this latest impeachment is just a simple example you have the overwhelming power of uh the prot Trump chorus in the media this political weaponization of impeachment first tentatively and then louder and louder by the use of the impeachment power this way she's destroyed separation of powers So I think it was a bad rushed emotional move that puts the presidency at risk it was not a huge surprise to her when when in very short order they either stopped criticizing Trump or they even began supporting him in his big lie but we

know we have a house of fools because they elected Nancy Pelosi to be their speaker I mean look what they did in this I don't think anyone would accuse Nancy Pelosi of being naive about the Republican party she's had decades to Become pretty cynical about her opponents and their intentions and their motivations the question is on the article of impeachment is the respondent Donald John Trump guilty or not guilty the clerk will call the role Mr Graham Mr Graham not guilty Mr McConnell not Mr McConnell not guilty the a are 57 the nayes are 43

respondent Donald John Trump former President of the United States is not guilty is charged in the article of [Music] impeachment we will not Bend we will not break we will not yield we will never give in we will never give up we will never back down we will never ever surrender my fellow Americans our movement is far from over in fact our fight has only just begun [Applause] [Music] For Pelosi this is a rolling cascading crisis it didn't end on January 20th Pelosi more than anyone understands that Republicans now and in the coming months are

going to be on the march from her position as Speaker Pelosi has been doing what she can to stop them there was just a point of Reckoning where you put up or you shut up and she was not going to shut up about this she Went after this with a Vengeance speaker Nancy Peli says she'll now create a select committee to further investigate the January 6th assault on the US capital lawmakers leading the select committee said no one would be off limits and now they have issued their very first subpoena to aiming for Trump and

his allies president Trump's Chief strategist Steve Bannon criminal contempt charges against former white house chief of staff Mark Meadows Kevin McCarthy the top Republican in the House of Representatives this is significant news she had to seek the truth and no one expected her to do it with anything other than the greatest Vigor and vitality and Vengeance you may have turned the page but not the cheek with the January 6th committee closing in and the midterms looming Pelosi is once again a lightning rod Nancy Pelosi has turned the US House of Representatives into a stalinist show

Trial that's what it is Republicans have found their favorite villain in Nancy Pelosi that's forever right Peli has broken this institution it shows exactly what I warned back at the beginning of January that Pelosi would play politics with [Music] this the question in Washington now is whether the Democrats and Pelosi can hold on to power ncy Pelosi and Joe Biden have this Urgency to get big bills passed quickly because they understand that their power could be fleeting top of Pelosi's list President Biden's reconciliation bill trillions of dollars in spending for some of her lifelong Ambitions

the reconciliation bill was a culmination of my service in Congress because it was about the children the children the children the children their health it's about health education the Economic security of their families a clean safe environment in which they could Thrive the president's huge social spending bill is stalled in the Senate with interp party fighting between Democrats over the reconciliation bill but in a bitterly divided Washington there's no path forward right now in the Congress can Democrats in a bitterly gridlock Senate get anything done success is uncertain Nancy Pelosi has shown that She really

is a historic figure she is clearly the premier vote counter in Washington today but Washington is a place where it's almost impossible to get things done and she's ending her career at a time where expectations are trimmed both for Democrats and therefore for Pelosi herself the Democrats in imminent danger of losing the majority in the house they are of course working against the clock the very strong possibility of a Republican Takeover in Congress Democrats are trying to drag their agenda across the Finish Line while also staring down the looming midterm elections [Music] for more on

this and other Frontline programs visit our website at pbs.org [Music] Frontline front lines poi's power is available on Amazon Prime video [Music] w [Music]