Even though she no longer has the gavel, Nancy Pelosi still appears to be in the driver’s seat inside the Democratic caucus as the party braces for a second Trump administration.
The 84-year-old Speaker Emerita was viewed as a chief foil for then-President Donald Trump during his first term, where she engaged in tense meetings with him inside the Oval Office or the moment she ripped up a copy of his speech at the end of his State of the Union address in 2020.
“There were rumors that she would step aside if Harris won so then the Democrats could do their thing, and then stick around if Trump won because, you know, she believes she needs to lead the anti-Trump forces,” said Steve Maviglio, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
There are already signs she is at the center of what will likely be the Trump resistance in the House in the 119th Congress. On a House Democratic Caucus call following the election, Pelosi suggested Democrats replicate the work of a group created during the last Trump administration that focused on defending the Affordable Care Act, according to familiar sources.
She honored a pledge she made in 2018 to serve just four more years following pressure from Democrats who viewed her as a political liability in their swing districts. The former speaker, however, is still wielding power without a formal leadership title, while Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is taking a forward-facing role.
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