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I mean, you could look to the internet, you could to railroads, you can go all the way back and look at industrialization in the 1800s, but we’ve just never seen this sort of rapid development,” said Michele Neitz, a professor of law, technology and social transformation at the University of San Francisco School of Law. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Currently, there is no comprehensive federal framework regulating AI, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102152/experts-urge-federal-lawmakers-to-regulate-ai-will-anyone-heed-their-alarm\">experts following AI\u003c/a> development closely say it’s time for lawmakers in Washington to set up guardrails even as President Donald Trump has suggested \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12103983/ai-founders-cheer-trumps-calls-for-the-industry-to-police-itself-on-safety\">AI companies will regulate themselves\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/kqed-debate-1-copy-2-scaled-e1790958307792.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102554\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">State Sen. Scott Wiener during a debate with San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan at KQED in San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. The two Democrats are running for California’s 11th District, a seat Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is leaving. KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle co-hosted the debate. (Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle/Pool)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That rapid development is happening more quickly than our political system can keep up,” Neitz said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener has long been vocal about the need to regulate and increase transparency around AI, and authored the country’s first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058013/newsom-signs-california-ai-transparency-bill-tailored-to-meet-tech-industry-tastes\">AI transparency bill\u003c/a>, which California passed in 2025. His first attempt at an AI safety bill included a “kill-switch” for disastrous scenarios and other safeguards; however, that bill was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The bill that did pass, SB 53, has since been adapted around the country, including by New York City, and other places like Connecticut have gone on to add even more comprehensive AI legislation focused on areas like education and workforce mandates. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Along the campaign trail, Wiener has leaned into that legislative experience and touted being an early advocate for AI safety. His vision for Congress is to create a federal regulatory body to oversee AI security, increase guardrails and protect whistleblowers, and expand unemployment to brace for waves of job displacement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a video advertisement, Wiener tells viewers that “AI is getting more powerful by the day, and the risks are very real.” He said that in Washington, he would continue to seek the kill-switch approach, along with more legal liability and safety standards and cooperation with other countries on AI safety.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener has also said that AI data centers should pick up the tab for their environmental costs, and he supports transitioning data centers towards greener energy, rather than a full ban on new facilities.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan meanwhile has taken what Neitz said is the more “populist” approach, calling for a full moratorium on data centers and giving unions and AI workers a voice in regulation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In her own video on the topic, Chan pointed to a $3.9 billion tax break that Meta received last year to build data centers. “We’re going to regulate artificial intelligence to make sure we can protect our workforce and prioritize safety for the American people,” she said. “No more tax breaks for these billionaires and tech corporations.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She’s also criticized her opponent’s AI safety bill, calling it “watered down” and influenced by big tech interests. The bill also did not prevent major cyberattacks this year, where AI models \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12092162/how-openais-models-escaped-their-sandbox-and-slipped-past-californias-ai-law\">hacked into other platforms\u003c/a> and breached government websites. Chan said the companies overseeing the models, OpenAI and Anthropic, should “absolutely” be held liable for the attacks. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Instead of waiting for something catastrophic to happen and to have a so-called kill switch, it is important to have human oversight during the developmental phase of the technology,” Chan said at a debate this week hosted by \u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>. “Can we trust the AI industries to police and regulate themselves? And can we trust any politicians who are bankrolled by the AI industry? I say no.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The advocacy group Public First Action, which is pushing for more AI regulation and has received money from the AI company Anthropic, has poured $3 million into Abundant Future, an independent expenditure committee supporting Wiener, Punchbowl News first reported. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/kqed-debate-3-scaled-e1790958264709.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102556\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan during her debate with state Sen. Scott Wiener at KQED in San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. The two Democrats are running for California’s 11th District, a seat Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is leaving. KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle co-hosted the debate. (Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle/Pool)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener, in the debate this week, said, “That PAC supports candidates who are pro-AI regulation, and because I have actually regulated AI and will lead in regulating AI in Congress, that is my understanding of why that PAC is supporting me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He went on to defend his record, saying he “went to war with big tech to pass AI regulation in California.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In September, tech titans including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, both leading San Francisco-based companies, made headlines for sounding the alarm about potentially devastating impacts of AI on humanity and called for regulations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But AI CEOs are not all in agreement on the issue. Others are advocating for self-regulation in order not to hinder development of the technology or risk falling behind China’s AI advancements. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1618\" height=\"1078\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/AP26272702876598-c2e61000.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/AP26272702876598-c2e61000.jpg 1618w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/AP26272702876598-c2e61000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/AP26272702876598-c2e61000-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1618px) 100vw, 1618px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump, center, next to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, left, and Elon Musk, right, speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 29, 2026, surrounded by top executives of AI firms including, from top left, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Greg Brockman, President of OpenAI, House Speaker Mike Johnson, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Palo Alto Networks Chief Executive Nikesh Arora and David Sacks. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump has pushed back against regulatory guardrails for AI, previously calling doomsday threats a “hoax.” In September, he signed a document with executives at Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and SpaceX that calls for “robust internal processes and controls to ensure that their technology behaves as intended.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Both Chan and Wiener don’t trust the idea. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We must not allow the tech companies to write their own self-regulation,” Wiener said. “We need Congress to step up and regulate tech to make sure technology is serving the public and not harming the public, and that will be a priority for me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Slowing down AI development has become the biggest political issue for many in the Bay Area. Wynd Kaufman, a retired former engineering teacher at City College of San Francisco, was one of several protesters arrested outside of the OpenAI headquarters last year, months before its CEO came out warning about the technology’s potential downsides. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Politicians are realizing that people do not want AI. We don’t want our environment degradation. We don’t want our rivers to run dry. We want our humanity and our privacy,” she said at an anti-AI protest on Thursday. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Local politicians are weighing, too. In San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12099583/san-francisco-supervisors-push-for-moratorium-on-new-data-centers\">passed a 45-day moratorium\u003c/a> on allowing new data centers, which use tremendous amounts of energy to train and run AI models. The board’s decision followed nationwide trends where communities have pushed back on opening up new data centers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But negative sentiment around AI has put San Francisco leaders in a bind, particularly business-friendly leaders who are banking on the AI industry to revive the city’s local economy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Bay Area region has added more than 20,000 AI jobs over the past year, even amid massive waves of layoffs and overall contraction of the tech industry, according to CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent report.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The concentration of talent, venture capital, leading universities and innovative companies continues to make the Bay Area the premier destination for AI development and investment,” said Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE Tech Insights.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For whichever candidate wins, the questions around AI safety are not likely going away soon. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to Neitz, “2027 is going to be a big year in AI legislation regardless of the outcome of the midterms because the people are clamoring for it and Congress will need to respond.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>State Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan are vying for Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat in Congress as the former House speaker prepares to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062796/nancy-pelosi-leaves-congress-after-38-years-defining-generations-of-democratic-power\">retire\u003c/a> after nearly four decades. They’re competing for votes at a time when concerns are rising around AI, from mass job loss to automated data privacy hacks and computer-driven nuclear war. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Consumers have not seen such rapid change with any new technology. I mean, you could look to the internet, you could to railroads, you can go all the way back and look at industrialization in the 1800s, but we’ve just never seen this sort of rapid development,” said Michele Neitz, a professor of law, technology and social transformation at the University of San Francisco School of Law. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Currently, there is no comprehensive federal framework regulating AI, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102152/experts-urge-federal-lawmakers-to-regulate-ai-will-anyone-heed-their-alarm\">experts following AI\u003c/a> development closely say it’s time for lawmakers in Washington to set up guardrails even as President Donald Trump has suggested \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12103983/ai-founders-cheer-trumps-calls-for-the-industry-to-police-itself-on-safety\">AI companies will regulate themselves\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“That rapid development is happening more quickly than our political system can keep up,” Neitz said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Wiener has long been vocal about the need to regulate and increase transparency around AI, and authored the country’s first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058013/newsom-signs-california-ai-transparency-bill-tailored-to-meet-tech-industry-tastes\">AI transparency bill\u003c/a>, which California passed in 2025. His first attempt at an AI safety bill included a “kill-switch” for disastrous scenarios and other safeguards; however, that bill was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The bill that did pass, SB 53, has since been adapted around the country, including by New York City, and other places like Connecticut have gone on to add even more comprehensive AI legislation focused on areas like education and workforce mandates. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The bill that did pass, SB 53, has since been adapted around the country, including by New York City, and other places like Connecticut have gone on to add even more comprehensive AI legislation focused on areas like education and workforce mandates. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Along the campaign trail, Wiener has leaned into that legislative experience and touted being an early advocate for AI safety. His vision for Congress is to create a federal regulatory body to oversee AI security, increase guardrails and protect whistleblowers, and expand unemployment to brace for waves of job displacement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a video advertisement, Wiener tells viewers that “AI is getting more powerful by the day, and the risks are very real.” He said that in Washington, he would continue to seek the kill-switch approach, along with more legal liability and safety standards and cooperation with other countries on AI safety.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In a video advertisement, Wiener tells viewers that “AI is getting more powerful by the day, and the risks are very real.” He said that in Washington, he would continue to seek the kill-switch approach, along with more legal liability and safety standards and cooperation with other countries on AI safety.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Wiener has also said that AI data centers should pick up the tab for their environmental costs, and he supports transitioning data centers towards greener energy, rather than a full ban on new facilities.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chan meanwhile has taken what Neitz said is the more “populist” approach, calling for a full moratorium on data centers and giving unions and AI workers a voice in regulation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In her own video on the topic, Chan pointed to a $3.9 billion tax break that Meta received last year to build data centers. “We’re going to regulate artificial intelligence to make sure we can protect our workforce and prioritize safety for the American people,” she said. “No more tax breaks for these billionaires and tech corporations.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She’s also criticized her opponent’s AI safety bill, calling it “watered down” and influenced by big tech interests. The bill also did not prevent major cyberattacks this year, where AI models \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12092162/how-openais-models-escaped-their-sandbox-and-slipped-past-californias-ai-law\">hacked into other platforms\u003c/a> and breached government websites. Chan said the companies overseeing the models, OpenAI and Anthropic, should “absolutely” be held liable for the attacks. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She’s also criticized her opponent’s AI safety bill, calling it “watered down” and influenced by big tech interests. The bill also did not prevent major cyberattacks this year, where AI models \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12092162/how-openais-models-escaped-their-sandbox-and-slipped-past-californias-ai-law\">hacked into other platforms\u003c/a> and breached government websites. Chan said the companies overseeing the models, OpenAI and Anthropic, should “absolutely” be held liable for the attacks. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Instead of waiting for something catastrophic to happen and to have a so-called kill switch, it is important to have human oversight during the developmental phase of the technology,” Chan said at a debate this week hosted by \u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>. “Can we trust the AI industries to police and regulate themselves? And can we trust any politicians who are bankrolled by the AI industry? I say no.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Instead of waiting for something catastrophic to happen and to have a so-called kill switch, it is important to have human oversight during the developmental phase of the technology,” Chan said at a debate this week hosted by \u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>. “Can we trust the AI industries to police and regulate themselves? And can we trust any politicians who are bankrolled by the AI industry? I say no.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The advocacy group Public First Action, which is pushing for more AI regulation and has received money from the AI company Anthropic, has poured $3 million into Abundant Future, an independent expenditure committee supporting Wiener, Punchbowl News first reported. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The advocacy group Public First Action, which is pushing for more AI regulation and has received money from the AI company Anthropic, has poured $3 million into Abundant Future, an independent expenditure committee supporting Wiener, Punchbowl News first reported. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Wiener, in the debate this week, said, “That PAC supports candidates who are pro-AI regulation, and because I have actually regulated AI and will lead in regulating AI in Congress, that is my understanding of why that PAC is supporting me.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He went on to defend his record, saying he “went to war with big tech to pass AI regulation in California.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In September, tech titans including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, both leading San Francisco-based companies, made headlines for sounding the alarm about potentially devastating impacts of AI on humanity and called for regulations. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But AI CEOs are not all in agreement on the issue. Others are advocating for self-regulation in order not to hinder development of the technology or risk falling behind China’s AI advancements. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump has pushed back against regulatory guardrails for AI, previously calling doomsday threats a “hoax.” In September, he signed a document with executives at Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and SpaceX that calls for “robust internal processes and controls to ensure that their technology behaves as intended.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Both Chan and Wiener don’t trust the idea. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We must not allow the tech companies to write their own self-regulation,” Wiener said. “We need Congress to step up and regulate tech to make sure technology is serving the public and not harming the public, and that will be a priority for me.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Slowing down AI development has become the biggest political issue for many in the Bay Area. Wynd Kaufman, a retired former engineering teacher at City College of San Francisco, was one of several protesters arrested outside of the OpenAI headquarters last year, months before its CEO came out warning about the technology’s potential downsides. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Politicians are realizing that people do not want AI. We don’t want our environment degradation. We don’t want our rivers to run dry. We want our humanity and our privacy,” she said at an anti-AI protest on Thursday. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Local politicians are weighing, too. In San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12099583/san-francisco-supervisors-push-for-moratorium-on-new-data-centers\">passed a 45-day moratorium\u003c/a> on allowing new data centers, which use tremendous amounts of energy to train and run AI models. The board’s decision followed nationwide trends where communities have pushed back on opening up new data centers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But negative sentiment around AI has put San Francisco leaders in a bind, particularly business-friendly leaders who are banking on the AI industry to revive the city’s local economy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Bay Area region has added more than 20,000 AI jobs over the past year, even amid massive waves of layoffs and overall contraction of the tech industry, according to CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent report.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The concentration of talent, venture capital, leading universities and innovative companies continues to make the Bay Area the premier destination for AI development and investment,” said Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE Tech Insights.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For whichever candidate wins, the questions around AI safety are not likely going away soon. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to Neitz, “2027 is going to be a big year in AI legislation regardless of the outcome of the midterms because the people are clamoring for it and Congress will need to respond.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "San Francisco Is Ground Zero for AI. How Would Congressional Candidates Push for Regulation? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>At the center of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/artificial-intelligence\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> boom, candidates looking to represent San Francisco in Washington appear aligned on a common goal: AI must be regulated. But how to do that is where the debate really heats up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>State Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan are vying for Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat in Congress as the former House speaker prepares to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062796/nancy-pelosi-leaves-congress-after-38-years-defining-generations-of-democratic-power\">retire\u003c/a> after nearly four decades. They’re competing for votes at a time when concerns are rising around AI, from mass job loss to automated data privacy hacks and computer-driven nuclear war. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Consumers have not seen such rapid change with any new technology. I mean, you could look to the internet, you could to railroads, you can go all the way back and look at industrialization in the 1800s, but we’ve just never seen this sort of rapid development,” said Michele Neitz, a professor of law, technology and social transformation at the University of San Francisco School of Law. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Currently, there is no comprehensive federal framework regulating AI, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102152/experts-urge-federal-lawmakers-to-regulate-ai-will-anyone-heed-their-alarm\">experts following AI\u003c/a> development closely say it’s time for lawmakers in Washington to set up guardrails even as President Donald Trump has suggested \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12103983/ai-founders-cheer-trumps-calls-for-the-industry-to-police-itself-on-safety\">AI companies will regulate themselves\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/kqed-debate-1-copy-2-scaled-e1790958307792.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102554\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">State Sen. Scott Wiener during a debate with San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan at KQED in San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. The two Democrats are running for California’s 11th District, a seat Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is leaving. KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle co-hosted the debate. (Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle/Pool)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That rapid development is happening more quickly than our political system can keep up,” Neitz said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener has long been vocal about the need to regulate and increase transparency around AI, and authored the country’s first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058013/newsom-signs-california-ai-transparency-bill-tailored-to-meet-tech-industry-tastes\">AI transparency bill\u003c/a>, which California passed in 2025. His first attempt at an AI safety bill included a “kill-switch” for disastrous scenarios and other safeguards; however, that bill was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The bill that did pass, SB 53, has since been adapted around the country, including by New York City, and other places like Connecticut have gone on to add even more comprehensive AI legislation focused on areas like education and workforce mandates. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Along the campaign trail, Wiener has leaned into that legislative experience and touted being an early advocate for AI safety. His vision for Congress is to create a federal regulatory body to oversee AI security, increase guardrails and protect whistleblowers, and expand unemployment to brace for waves of job displacement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a video advertisement, Wiener tells viewers that “AI is getting more powerful by the day, and the risks are very real.” He said that in Washington, he would continue to seek the kill-switch approach, along with more legal liability and safety standards and cooperation with other countries on AI safety.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener has also said that AI data centers should pick up the tab for their environmental costs, and he supports transitioning data centers towards greener energy, rather than a full ban on new facilities.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan meanwhile has taken what Neitz said is the more “populist” approach, calling for a full moratorium on data centers and giving unions and AI workers a voice in regulation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In her own video on the topic, Chan pointed to a $3.9 billion tax break that Meta received last year to build data centers. “We’re going to regulate artificial intelligence to make sure we can protect our workforce and prioritize safety for the American people,” she said. “No more tax breaks for these billionaires and tech corporations.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She’s also criticized her opponent’s AI safety bill, calling it “watered down” and influenced by big tech interests. The bill also did not prevent major cyberattacks this year, where AI models \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12092162/how-openais-models-escaped-their-sandbox-and-slipped-past-californias-ai-law\">hacked into other platforms\u003c/a> and breached government websites. Chan said the companies overseeing the models, OpenAI and Anthropic, should “absolutely” be held liable for the attacks. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Instead of waiting for something catastrophic to happen and to have a so-called kill switch, it is important to have human oversight during the developmental phase of the technology,” Chan said at a debate this week hosted by \u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>. “Can we trust the AI industries to police and regulate themselves? And can we trust any politicians who are bankrolled by the AI industry? I say no.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The advocacy group Public First Action, which is pushing for more AI regulation and has received money from the AI company Anthropic, has poured $3 million into Abundant Future, an independent expenditure committee supporting Wiener, Punchbowl News first reported. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/kqed-debate-3-scaled-e1790958264709.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102556\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan during her debate with state Sen. Scott Wiener at KQED in San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. The two Democrats are running for California’s 11th District, a seat Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is leaving. KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle co-hosted the debate. (Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle/Pool)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener, in the debate this week, said, “That PAC supports candidates who are pro-AI regulation, and because I have actually regulated AI and will lead in regulating AI in Congress, that is my understanding of why that PAC is supporting me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He went on to defend his record, saying he “went to war with big tech to pass AI regulation in California.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In September, tech titans including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, both leading San Francisco-based companies, made headlines for sounding the alarm about potentially devastating impacts of AI on humanity and called for regulations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But AI CEOs are not all in agreement on the issue. Others are advocating for self-regulation in order not to hinder development of the technology or risk falling behind China’s AI advancements. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1618\" height=\"1078\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/AP26272702876598-c2e61000.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/AP26272702876598-c2e61000.jpg 1618w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/AP26272702876598-c2e61000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/AP26272702876598-c2e61000-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1618px) 100vw, 1618px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump, center, next to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, left, and Elon Musk, right, speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 29, 2026, surrounded by top executives of AI firms including, from top left, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Greg Brockman, President of OpenAI, House Speaker Mike Johnson, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Palo Alto Networks Chief Executive Nikesh Arora and David Sacks. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump has pushed back against regulatory guardrails for AI, previously calling doomsday threats a “hoax.” In September, he signed a document with executives at Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and SpaceX that calls for “robust internal processes and controls to ensure that their technology behaves as intended.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Both Chan and Wiener don’t trust the idea. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We must not allow the tech companies to write their own self-regulation,” Wiener said. “We need Congress to step up and regulate tech to make sure technology is serving the public and not harming the public, and that will be a priority for me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Slowing down AI development has become the biggest political issue for many in the Bay Area. Wynd Kaufman, a retired former engineering teacher at City College of San Francisco, was one of several protesters arrested outside of the OpenAI headquarters last year, months before its CEO came out warning about the technology’s potential downsides. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Politicians are realizing that people do not want AI. We don’t want our environment degradation. We don’t want our rivers to run dry. We want our humanity and our privacy,” she said at an anti-AI protest on Thursday. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Local politicians are weighing, too. In San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12099583/san-francisco-supervisors-push-for-moratorium-on-new-data-centers\">passed a 45-day moratorium\u003c/a> on allowing new data centers, which use tremendous amounts of energy to train and run AI models. The board’s decision followed nationwide trends where communities have pushed back on opening up new data centers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But negative sentiment around AI has put San Francisco leaders in a bind, particularly business-friendly leaders who are banking on the AI industry to revive the city’s local economy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Bay Area region has added more than 20,000 AI jobs over the past year, even amid massive waves of layoffs and overall contraction of the tech industry, according to CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent report.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The concentration of talent, venture capital, leading universities and innovative companies continues to make the Bay Area the premier destination for AI development and investment,” said Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE Tech Insights.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For whichever candidate wins, the questions around AI safety are not likely going away soon. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to Neitz, “2027 is going to be a big year in AI legislation regardless of the outcome of the midterms because the people are clamoring for it and Congress will need to respond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "bay-area-lawmakers-denounce-pentagons-plan-for-live-streamed-execution",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>State lawmakers are denouncing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/pentagon\">Pentagon’s\u003c/a> plan to livestream an execution by firing squad in December.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2009, Nidal Hasan, then-Army major and physician, shot and killed 13 unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, wounding 32 others. Paralyzed from the waist down after being shot during the incident, he’s been on death row since 2013. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made waves on Oct. 8 when he announced that Hasan’s execution by firing squad, scheduled for Dec. 3, would be made public. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hegseth \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/DOWResponse/status/2108272558390866330?s=20\">told\u003c/a> conservative news outlet \u003cem>Real America’s Voice \u003c/em>that the decision to have soldiers carry out the execution publicly, with rifles, was a “no-brainer\u003cem>.” \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It hadn’t been since World War II since we’ve done that,” Hegseth said. “Well, I kinda like the mentality we had in World War II.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1998\" height=\"1332\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/MikeThompson_ICE-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12057112\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/MikeThompson_ICE-1.jpg 1998w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/MikeThompson_ICE-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/MikeThompson_ICE-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1998px) 100vw, 1998px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">North Bay Rep. Mike Thompson participates in a news conference outside the Capitol on Feb. 1, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>North Bay Rep. Mike Thompson called the livestreaming idea one of the most distasteful decisions to come from Hegseth. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That’s going far, because he’s made some real blunders,” Thompson told KQED. “The person committed some heinous crimes; he should be punished, but this is not something for entertainment.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“It’s not something that’s going to help,” Thompson said. “It’s not something that civilized humanity does.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump said last week he “absolutely did” approve the execution being livestreamed. But on Saturday, he told reporters that he will make a final decision soon. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision,” Trump said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s my understanding that the White House has not decided how to proceed, so the court of public opinion can be powerful,” Thompson said. “We need to make sure everyone knows that this is inappropriate and shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and that word needs to get to the president.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is not an American value,” Thompson said. “I can’t say that strongly enough.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>South Bay Rep. Ro Khanna condemned Hegseth’s plans over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is like the spectacle of the coliseum, for entertainment and for shaming people,” Khanna told \u003cem>MS NOW.\u003c/em> “It has no basis in modern humanitarian law, it’s going to make us an outlier, it’s actually going to glorify the terrorist who did this.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Khanna forecasted it as “a recruiting tool for terrorist groups all over the world.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It is this total idiocy of governance that’s why we’re struggling as a nation,” he said.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier called Hegseth’s plan “barbaric” and said it “makes a mockery of our justice system.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Secretary Hegseth and this Administration continue to put spectacle over the safety and security of the American people,” DeSaulnier wrote in an email to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12075441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, speaks during a press conference with (L-R) committee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-California, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Virginia, and Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Missouri, as former U.S. President Bill Clinton testifies in a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center on Feb. 27, 2026, in Chappaqua, New York. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Khanna sits on the House Armed Services Committee, responsible for the funding, policy, and oversight of the DOD and the military. He said he plans on holding Hegseth and others accountable. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Thomas Massie has an impeachment resolution on Hegseth, and that is going to get, in my view, 20 Republicans; he needs to be impeached,” Khanna said. “But that’s not enough. We need a truth and accountability commission in this country.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi weighed in, posting on the social media platform \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/2108643933592932860?s=12\">X\u003c/a> that Pete Hegseth “dishonors both our nation and the position he holds. He is beyond unfit to lead the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. He must go.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hasan can still move to significantly delay his sentence if he files a habeas corpus petition in federal court. If the Pentagon’s plan goes through, it will be the first execution by the military since 1961 — when it killed Army Pvt. John Bennet by hanging, for rape and attempted murder. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The last military execution by firing squad was carried out in 1945, during World War II, when an Army private named Eddie Slovik was shot in France for desertion.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made waves on Oct. 8 when he announced that Hasan’s execution by firing squad, scheduled for Dec. 3, would be made public. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It hadn’t been since World War II since we’ve done that,” Hegseth said. “Well, I kinda like the mentality we had in World War II.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump said last week he “absolutely did” approve the execution being livestreamed. But on Saturday, he told reporters that he will make a final decision soon. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision,” Trump said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s my understanding that the White House has not decided how to proceed, so the court of public opinion can be powerful,” Thompson said. “We need to make sure everyone knows that this is inappropriate and shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and that word needs to get to the president.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It is this total idiocy of governance that’s why we’re struggling as a nation,” he said.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier called Hegseth’s plan “barbaric” and said it “makes a mockery of our justice system.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Secretary Hegseth and this Administration continue to put spectacle over the safety and security of the American people,” DeSaulnier wrote in an email to KQED.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12075441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, speaks during a press conference with (L-R) committee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-California, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Virginia, and Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Missouri, as former U.S. President Bill Clinton testifies in a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center on Feb. 27, 2026, in Chappaqua, New York. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Thomas Massie has an impeachment resolution on Hegseth, and that is going to get, in my view, 20 Republicans; he needs to be impeached,” Khanna said. “But that’s not enough. We need a truth and accountability commission in this country.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi weighed in, posting on the social media platform \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/2108643933592932860?s=12\">X\u003c/a> that Pete Hegseth “dishonors both our nation and the position he holds. He is beyond unfit to lead the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. He must go.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi weighed in, posting on the social media platform \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/2108643933592932860?s=12\">X\u003c/a> that Pete Hegseth “dishonors both our nation and the position he holds. He is beyond unfit to lead the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. He must go.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Hasan can still move to significantly delay his sentence if he files a habeas corpus petition in federal court. If the Pentagon’s plan goes through, it will be the first execution by the military since 1961 — when it killed Army Pvt. John Bennet by hanging, for rape and attempted murder. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Hasan can still move to significantly delay his sentence if he files a habeas corpus petition in federal court. If the Pentagon’s plan goes through, it will be the first execution by the military since 1961 — when it killed Army Pvt. John Bennet by hanging, for rape and attempted murder. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The last military execution by firing squad was carried out in 1945, during World War II, when an Army private named Eddie Slovik was shot in France for desertion.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The department’s announcement to livestream Nidal Hasan’s execution by firing squad has sparked nationwide backlash.",
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"title": "Bay Area Lawmakers Denounce Pentagon’s Plan for Livestreamed Execution | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>State lawmakers are denouncing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/pentagon\">Pentagon’s\u003c/a> plan to livestream an execution by firing squad in December.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2009, Nidal Hasan, then-Army major and physician, shot and killed 13 unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, wounding 32 others. Paralyzed from the waist down after being shot during the incident, he’s been on death row since 2013. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made waves on Oct. 8 when he announced that Hasan’s execution by firing squad, scheduled for Dec. 3, would be made public. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hegseth \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/DOWResponse/status/2108272558390866330?s=20\">told\u003c/a> conservative news outlet \u003cem>Real America’s Voice \u003c/em>that the decision to have soldiers carry out the execution publicly, with rifles, was a “no-brainer\u003cem>.” \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It hadn’t been since World War II since we’ve done that,” Hegseth said. “Well, I kinda like the mentality we had in World War II.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1998\" height=\"1332\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/MikeThompson_ICE-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12057112\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/MikeThompson_ICE-1.jpg 1998w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/MikeThompson_ICE-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/MikeThompson_ICE-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1998px) 100vw, 1998px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">North Bay Rep. Mike Thompson participates in a news conference outside the Capitol on Feb. 1, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>North Bay Rep. Mike Thompson called the livestreaming idea one of the most distasteful decisions to come from Hegseth. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That’s going far, because he’s made some real blunders,” Thompson told KQED. “The person committed some heinous crimes; he should be punished, but this is not something for entertainment.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“It’s not something that’s going to help,” Thompson said. “It’s not something that civilized humanity does.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump said last week he “absolutely did” approve the execution being livestreamed. But on Saturday, he told reporters that he will make a final decision soon. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision,” Trump said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s my understanding that the White House has not decided how to proceed, so the court of public opinion can be powerful,” Thompson said. “We need to make sure everyone knows that this is inappropriate and shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and that word needs to get to the president.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is not an American value,” Thompson said. “I can’t say that strongly enough.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>South Bay Rep. Ro Khanna condemned Hegseth’s plans over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is like the spectacle of the coliseum, for entertainment and for shaming people,” Khanna told \u003cem>MS NOW.\u003c/em> “It has no basis in modern humanitarian law, it’s going to make us an outlier, it’s actually going to glorify the terrorist who did this.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Khanna forecasted it as “a recruiting tool for terrorist groups all over the world.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It is this total idiocy of governance that’s why we’re struggling as a nation,” he said.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier called Hegseth’s plan “barbaric” and said it “makes a mockery of our justice system.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Secretary Hegseth and this Administration continue to put spectacle over the safety and security of the American people,” DeSaulnier wrote in an email to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12075441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/RoKhannaGetty1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, speaks during a press conference with (L-R) committee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-California, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Virginia, and Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Missouri, as former U.S. President Bill Clinton testifies in a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center on Feb. 27, 2026, in Chappaqua, New York. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Khanna sits on the House Armed Services Committee, responsible for the funding, policy, and oversight of the DOD and the military. He said he plans on holding Hegseth and others accountable. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Thomas Massie has an impeachment resolution on Hegseth, and that is going to get, in my view, 20 Republicans; he needs to be impeached,” Khanna said. “But that’s not enough. We need a truth and accountability commission in this country.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi weighed in, posting on the social media platform \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/2108643933592932860?s=12\">X\u003c/a> that Pete Hegseth “dishonors both our nation and the position he holds. He is beyond unfit to lead the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. He must go.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hasan can still move to significantly delay his sentence if he files a habeas corpus petition in federal court. If the Pentagon’s plan goes through, it will be the first execution by the military since 1961 — when it killed Army Pvt. John Bennet by hanging, for rape and attempted murder. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The last military execution by firing squad was carried out in 1945, during World War II, when an Army private named Eddie Slovik was shot in France for desertion.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "katie-porter-backs-sen-scott-wiener-in-san-francisco-congressional-race",
"title": "Katie Porter Backs Sen. Scott Wiener in San Francisco Congressional Race",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Katie Porter is no longer in the running for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082619/gubernatorial-candidate-katie-porter-fields-questions-on-housing-gas-prices-ai-agenda-at-kqed-town-hall\">California governor\u003c/a>, but the former Southern California congresswoman is staying active in politics by backing state Sen. Scott Wiener in his bid to represent San Francisco in Washington. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The latest endorsement comes a month out from Election Day in the race between Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who are vying to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives. The former speaker of the House is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062796/nancy-pelosi-leaves-congress-after-38-years-defining-generations-of-democratic-power\">retiring\u003c/a> after nearly four decades in San Francisco’s congressional seat. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Right now, Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are ripping away healthcare and raising costs on working people. We need representatives in Washington who won’t back down and who know how to win,” said Porter, who represented Orange County in Congress from 2019 to 2025. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Scott will be a fighter for San Francisco families in Congress — on housing, on healthcare and on the cost of living — and I’m proud to endorse him.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12085954\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during an election night event at his campaign headquarters in San Francisco on June 2, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The race between Chan and Wiener, both Democrats, could be close, with Wiener showing an 11-point lead, according to a September poll from Tavern Research, with a margin of error of 5.2%. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan has surged in popularity since early this year, when polls showed her trailing Wiener and former candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, who lost in the June primary. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She got a big boost in May from Pelosi, who has endorsed Chan as her successor, and has also nabbed endorsements from many labor unions and politicians like former Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Jackie Speier.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener has outraised his opponent, but Chan has found an audience in part by highlighting her own background, underscoring her experience as an immigrant and working mom. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She has also blasted Wiener for his ties to the tech industry. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102416/san-francisco-congressional-hopefuls-debate-ai-billionaires-and-of-course-housing\">recent debate\u003c/a> hosted by KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle, Chan repeatedly asked audiences, “Can we trust politicians who are bankrolled by the AI industry? The answer is no, we cannot.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the same event, Wiener emphasized housing projects that Chan has blocked, saying the supervisor has stymied opportunities to build more homes at a time when the city is facing an affordability crisis and housing shortage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Porter, a consumer protection attorney and law professor, specifically pointed to Wiener’s legislative record on housing, healthcare and transit as her reasons for backing him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener “has written the laws that are getting homes built in San Francisco and California, and he has taken on the powerful interests that drive up what families pay for healthcare, and protected public transit that families depend on to get to school and work,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener said he was honored to have Porter’s endorsement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We share a simple belief: San Francisco should be a place where working families can afford to live and raise their kids,” Wiener said in a statement. “That means building far more homes so rents and mortgages come down, protecting and expanding healthcare people can afford and investing in public transit.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The latest endorsement comes a month out from Election Day in the race between Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who are vying to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives. The former speaker of the House is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062796/nancy-pelosi-leaves-congress-after-38-years-defining-generations-of-democratic-power\">retiring\u003c/a> after nearly four decades in San Francisco’s congressional seat. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Wiener has outraised his opponent, but Chan has found an audience in part by highlighting her own background, underscoring her experience as an immigrant and working mom. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Wiener “has written the laws that are getting homes built in San Francisco and California, and he has taken on the powerful interests that drive up what families pay for healthcare, and protected public transit that families depend on to get to school and work,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We share a simple belief: San Francisco should be a place where working families can afford to live and raise their kids,” Wiener said in a statement. “That means building far more homes so rents and mortgages come down, protecting and expanding healthcare people can afford and investing in public transit.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The former gubernatorial candidate is throwing her support behind the state senator as polls suggest a close race between Scott Wiener and Connie Chan for Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Katie Porter is no longer in the running for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082619/gubernatorial-candidate-katie-porter-fields-questions-on-housing-gas-prices-ai-agenda-at-kqed-town-hall\">California governor\u003c/a>, but the former Southern California congresswoman is staying active in politics by backing state Sen. Scott Wiener in his bid to represent San Francisco in Washington. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The latest endorsement comes a month out from Election Day in the race between Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who are vying to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives. The former speaker of the House is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062796/nancy-pelosi-leaves-congress-after-38-years-defining-generations-of-democratic-power\">retiring\u003c/a> after nearly four decades in San Francisco’s congressional seat. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Right now, Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are ripping away healthcare and raising costs on working people. We need representatives in Washington who won’t back down and who know how to win,” said Porter, who represented Orange County in Congress from 2019 to 2025. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Scott will be a fighter for San Francisco families in Congress — on housing, on healthcare and on the cost of living — and I’m proud to endorse him.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12085954\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during an election night event at his campaign headquarters in San Francisco on June 2, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The race between Chan and Wiener, both Democrats, could be close, with Wiener showing an 11-point lead, according to a September poll from Tavern Research, with a margin of error of 5.2%. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan has surged in popularity since early this year, when polls showed her trailing Wiener and former candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, who lost in the June primary. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She got a big boost in May from Pelosi, who has endorsed Chan as her successor, and has also nabbed endorsements from many labor unions and politicians like former Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Jackie Speier.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener has outraised his opponent, but Chan has found an audience in part by highlighting her own background, underscoring her experience as an immigrant and working mom. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She has also blasted Wiener for his ties to the tech industry. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102416/san-francisco-congressional-hopefuls-debate-ai-billionaires-and-of-course-housing\">recent debate\u003c/a> hosted by KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle, Chan repeatedly asked audiences, “Can we trust politicians who are bankrolled by the AI industry? The answer is no, we cannot.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the same event, Wiener emphasized housing projects that Chan has blocked, saying the supervisor has stymied opportunities to build more homes at a time when the city is facing an affordability crisis and housing shortage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Porter, a consumer protection attorney and law professor, specifically pointed to Wiener’s legislative record on housing, healthcare and transit as her reasons for backing him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener “has written the laws that are getting homes built in San Francisco and California, and he has taken on the powerful interests that drive up what families pay for healthcare, and protected public transit that families depend on to get to school and work,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener said he was honored to have Porter’s endorsement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We share a simple belief: San Francisco should be a place where working families can afford to live and raise their kids,” Wiener said in a statement. “That means building far more homes so rents and mortgages come down, protecting and expanding healthcare people can afford and investing in public transit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#Transcript\">View Full Episode Transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2016,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi was planning on retiring from Congress. But Donald Trump’s presidential victory disrupted her plans, and her legacy. Pelosi’s public battles with the President cemented her status as a liberal warrior – spearheading two impeachments and navigating the January 6th attack. But to some in her caucus, including the young progressives of “The Squad,” Pelosi’s approach wasn’t enough to address a new wave of populism and a growing mistrust of government. And amidst this politically fraught landscape, did Pelosi’s actions around stock trading — or inaction, according to some — add fuel to the fire?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Last episode, we focused on the Affordable Care Act, which then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pushed through Congress. But when you ask people about Pelosi, like our producer Ariella Markowitz did on the streets in DC, something else tends to come up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>What comes to mind when you think of Nancy Pelosi?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vox 1: \u003c/strong>Man, California, stocks, stock trades, that’s funny. Insider stock trading. He defends that, he’s gotten quite wealthy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vox 2:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>She has manipulated her position and used it to her benefit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It’s something her opponents bring up a lot. Here’s President Trump earlier this year during his State of the Union address. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>Let’s also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information. They stood up for that, I can’t believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she’s here? Doubt it. Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A few months later, the House passed a stock trading ban for members of Congress, and Nancy Pelosi voted against it. Some Democrats had an issue with the bill because it included an unrelated voter ID provision, which many critics say is really a way of suppressing Democratic turnout in elections. And the stock trading bill? It wouldn’t have applied if it were the president. Profiteering by President Trump and his family, including prolific stock trading, are a trademark of his second term. But to many, the name Pelosi triggers allegations of corruption. In her second run as Speaker, Pelosi and President Trump became full-on enemies, locked in public brawls that would define both of their legacies. But Pelosi doesn’t really want to go there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about Trump, so…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I know he’s not your favorite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, it’s not my favorite compared to almost any creature crawling the earth. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Still, this creature has defined her final chapter in unexpected ways. From KQED, this is The Speaker. I’m Scott Shafer. Today, how Pelosi responds to what she and many see as a fundamental threat to democracy. President Trump. And with faith in the Democratic Party and public trust in U.S. Institutions at their lowest in decades, the shadow that hangs over her legacy. Accusations of insider stock trading in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi says she planned on retiring after the 2016 election. She would have been 76 years old, and she was assuming that a Democrat would win. You were really ready to say, that’s it, I’m done.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, I was ready to say it a number of times, but I only thought I would go 10 years. I never thought I’d run for Congress, much less for leadership. And then the members, you have to stay, you have stay, you to stay. And so I did.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She thought her crowning achievement, the Affordable Care Act, her baby, would be protected under a President Hillary Clinton. On November 8, 2016, Pelosi was in Washington with her colleagues, waiting for the returns to come in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>One of my colleagues was the chairman of the party in Philadelphia. And we were getting returns from him saying, they told us if we got over 500,000 in Philadelphia, we would carry Pennsylvania. So one night he’d say, it’s getting closer, but we’re okay, it was getting closer. Then finally he said, you know, the turnout from McCall, but you know just naming the names of some counties is just unprecedented. We’re not gonna be able to offset it. I was like getting kicked in the back by a mule.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>During his first campaign for president, Trump had leaned into people’s cynicism and mistrust of politicians.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>If we win on November 8th, we are going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. We’re draining the swamp.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After he won, President Trump issued a flurry of executive orders and policies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>President Trump’s most recent executive order effectively banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. For at least 90 days. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>Today President Donald Trump is continuing to defend his administration’s policy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>When you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And, in 2017, when white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>There are people, bodies laying on the ground right now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>NAZIS GO HOME! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In response to the violence, Trump said this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>Very fine people on both sides \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the midst of all this, Pelosi and Democrats campaigned hard to defeat Republicans in the 2018 midterms. But economic unrest was starting to influence the Democratic Party’s politics. For years there had been discontent on the left about the 2008 bailout and economic disparity. A movement called Occupy Wall Street kicked off in 2011. The slogan was, we are the 99 percent. In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders had been a grassroots presidential candidate, and he was popular. More than 40 percent of people who voted in the primaries wanted him to be the nominee.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bernie Sanders: \u003c/strong>The reason that we have done so well, the reason I believe we’re going to do so well in the Hampshire and in the other states that follow, the reason is the American people are saying no to a rigged economy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Sanders had run on a message about economic inequality.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bernie Sanders: \u003c/strong>They no longer want to see an economy in which the average American works longer hours for low wages while almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1%.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Some people argue that this energy helped Democrats take back the House in 2018, two years into Trump’s presidency. They’d been out of power since the Tea Party had stormed into Congress almost a decade earlier. That election night, Pelosi took the stage again to the chants of \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Thank you all, thank you all very much, remember this feeling, know the power to win. Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans, it’s about restoring the Constitution’s checks and balances to the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And with that election, a wave of newcomers with bold ideas, including four progressive women who became known as the Squad. Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, Ilhan Omar from Minnesota, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, from New York. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>I think what we’ve seen is that working-class Americans want a clear champion and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>AOC is a democratic socialist, like Bernie Sanders. She defeated Joe Crowley, one of Pelosi’s top deputies in leadership. Many had actually seen Crowley as the person best positioned to become speaker after Pelosi left. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>He didn’t pay enough attention to his district. That, you know, that’s really what it is. It was an election in the summer. So I had very low turnout. I mean, he was predicating his success on how things go in a full election. But AOC ran a great campaign and it was stunning because he’s terrific and respected and he was chair of the caucus, I think, at the time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Needless to say, there was some friction between the new members and the old guard. Before being sworn in, AOC joined a climate protest outside Pelosi’s office. People are holding yellow signs that say Green Jobs for All.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>I just want to let you all know how proud I am of each and every single one of you for putting yourselves and your bodies and everything on the line to make sure that we save our planet, our generation, and our home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi told me she was the wrong target for their protest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>They should not have been in my office as a start because we had done more on climate than anybody.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Once they won back the House, some new, younger members were among those questioning whether Pelosi was the right leader for the House Democrats. But after cutting some deals, Pelosi was easily elected speaker for a second time. The squad cast their votes for her, too. Her swearing in was joyous.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I’d like to call my grandchildren up to be here when I take you, and any other children who want to join them. Come on, kids. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She’d have her work cut out for her. In June of 2019, the House was considering an appropriations bill that would provide funds to process and detain migrants at the border, but also for an emergency food and shelter program, money to help deal with what people were calling a humanitarian crisis. This bill was being debated a year after the Trump administration rolled out and then backed down on a policy that criminally prosecuted all adults crossing the border without papers. The Zero Tolerance Policy meant children were separated from their parents. It was something AOC spoke about at an oversight committee hearing in July 2019. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>And what was worse about this, Mr. Chairman, was the fact that there were American flags hanging all over these facilities, that children being separated from their parents in front of an American flag.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Progressives didn’t want to give more money to the agencies that carried out Trump’s harsh border policies. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders negotiated with them, added additional health and safety standards for migrant children to the bill, but the squad still defected. They were the only Democrats to vote no on the House bill. You described the squad as just four votes. It was. That’s what it was. It was four votes This may sound harsh, but it’s how Pelosi sees things. They were a small obstacle that didn’t affect her vote count. But Pelosi would be challenged again by the progressive wing when she had to give up the House bill with stronger protections for a Senate version. She was disappointed that Senate Democrats hadn’t fought for a better bill, but she decided to compromise and push it through. That caused public outrage from House progressives. AOC took her issues with Pelosi public. She said in an interview with the Washington Post… That she felt the squad had been singled out by Pelosi, implied it was because they were four women of color. AOC’s chief of staff compared centrist Democrats to segregationists on Twitter. He asked why this so-called legislative mastermind, referring to Pelosi, couldn’t get more done on kitchen table issues. By some accounts, Pelosi was furious. Even today, you can hear the annoyance in her voice.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If you want to legislate, don’t be on airwaves criticizing the people whose votes you need. You can be here as a legislator where you need the votes of people for an issue that you may want to advance, or you can be an internet where you’re here to criticize your colleagues and expect them to vote for your bill.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In one closed-door meeting with her Democratic caucus, she told them to bring their grievances to her, not tweet about them to the public. She said at the end of the day, her goal was to help the children. She told them, some of you are here to make a beautiful pate, but we’re making sausage most of the time. Our producer Ariella asked Representative Ilhan Omar, part of the squad, about this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>She was giving speeches about sausages versus pates and all of this. What do you think about that got under her skin? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilhan Omar: \u003c/strong>I think she herself saw herself as a progressive and in some ways might’ve felt insulted that the progressive movement didn’t think of her as being one of them. And she felt like because she was the speaker and she’s the leader for the whole caucus and the whole House, that the decisions that she had to make had to be for the good of the whole.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now as I thought about these showdowns between the squad and the speaker, I remember how Pelosi herself had sort of ignored Congressional norms when she got to Washington. So I asked her how she felt about AOC. I wonder if you saw a little bit of yourself in her.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t at all.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I don’t know. Well, wait until you hear the question. Well, you just asked it, and I said no. I mean, whatBrase I’m thinking of is when you first got there in your very first speech, you talked about AIDS. You were kind of breaking the protocol a little bit. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>She’s operational, make no mistake, some of those squads are not. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Say what you mean by that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Operational is that she knows that she wants to accomplish something. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Operational. This is one of Pelosi’s favorite words. It’s what Congresswoman Sala Burton said about Pelosi before she endorsed her back in 1987. So when Pelosi called AOC operational, this was a mark of respect. She’s learned how to get things done. Here’s the thing, Pelosi comes from progressive San Francisco. She thinks of herself as a liberal, cares about things like ending poverty, providing health care, and believes the government should be a force for good. But she values something else, too, maybe even more than anything else, being effective. It means working within a system she ultimately believes in to get things done, being willing to compromise in the process. But in this era of President Trump… Was being operational enough? Even though she loathed President Trump, Pelosi tried to enter their first meeting with an open mind. Out of respect for the institution.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>This is historic. It’s a meeting between the new president and the leadership of the Congress, bipartisan leadership in the Congress. I’ve been in that meeting many times with President Bush, Obama. It’s historic. And so I’m sitting there thinking, why don’t we begin? Will he quote the Bible? Will he talk about America and founders and what America means to us? And we talk about his family and what this… Means to him, how will he begin this meeting? He leans over on the desk like this, the table, and says, you know, I won the popular vote. It was totally offensive. So I thought, well, that’s not true. That’s not truth. And he said, well I’m not even counting California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The relationship went downhill from there. You may remember some of those moments, like in 2018 when Pelosi walked out of a meeting with Trump in a red coat and Armani sunglasses looking completely relaxed. She put her sunglasses on right in time for the photos. The image went viral.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>The new power suit for women, red coats, sunglasses, nerves of steel. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I had no idea, I just put on my coat and walked out to the press, which is outside. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Or you may remember her dressed in all white, standing behind the president. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>But Nancy Pelosi became the queen of condescending applause. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clapping sarcastically at Trump during his 2019 State of the Union address. She clearly wasn’t intimidated by him. After all, this is the same woman who called Bush incompetent on national TV and refused to apologize for it. To me, it seems like Pelosi was adapting to the moment. She was smart enough to sense that in this era of politics, it’s those viral images that stick with people, not the closed-door legislative rooms Pelosi was used cutting deals in. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>The fact is, people want to see moments. You know, I hear speeches, they want to see moments, what people are happy about is that I did that, that I pointed to him, that I walked out of the office, because it spoke to their, how they felt or believed at the time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She was getting under his skin. To those in the Trump 1.0 administration, Pelosi was an obstructionist. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>Nancy was just so difficult to work with. Again, she may take that as a badge of honor, and I get it, there’s a lot of Republicans who take their unwillingness to compromise with Democrats as a badge of honor. So she’s not unique in that, but she had zero interest in doing anything with Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Mick Mulvaney, who was President Trump’s chief of staff when Pelosi regained the speakership. We talked to him last episode, a Tea Party guy who campaigned for his House seat against the Affordable Care Act and won. He said President Trump respected Pelosi at first.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>He respects strength and that’s certainly what she has. When she was doing what she was doing, she had a margin roughly the same size that Mike Johnson has today in the House. And she was able to corral her party and he respected that. But at the end of the day, she had zero interest in being with the guy and I think the country is worse for it. If they had wanted to sit down and cut some deals, they could have had a tremendous bipartisan deal on infrastructure. I even think they could’ve had a tremendous bipartisan on immigration. But it was fight, fight, fighting the whole time. And it was bitter and poisonous.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>While Republicans felt Pelosi was just an obstacle to getting anything done, many Democrats were calling for Trump’s impeachment. But Pelosi was wary.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>People wanted to impeach him just because he was obnoxious and dyed his hair orange. Everybody had a thing of he’s not really presidential. That’s not a cause for impeachment. You know what I’m saying?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But then, in the summer of 2019, President Trump gave Democrats their opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I’ve said the only person who’s responsible for the impeachment of Donald Trump, not once but twice, is Donald Trump. He gave us no choice.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A whistleblower said that in a phone call, Trump tried to get Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Trump’s rival in the upcoming election, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter. The White House released a transcript of the call, and President Trump tried to deflect to the debunked claim that Joe Biden was linked to a corruption scandal. And let me tell you something, Biden’s son is corrupt, and Biden is corrupt. To Pelosi, this attempt to interfere with the 2020 election was the unconstitutional violation Democrats could not ignore. This would be the grounds for the impeachment case.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>What he did was wrong. Now, different other things you could have included in that we said, you have to keep it simple. What is the thing that crosses the line, not just on its own might be grounds for impeachment, but not on the caliber of the Zelensky letter. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But Pelosi didn’t revel in the impeachment, she actually silenced the applause after the impeachment vote with a stern glance and a hand gesture.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Article 1 is adopted. The question is on adoption of Article 2.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You can count votes. You were probably, I’m guessing, pretty confident the Senate would not convict, right? They needed 67 votes. Why did you think it was important to go ahead and really start a process that you knew ultimately you would not?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We did succeed. We impeached him twice. But you think that we should be guided by what the Senate might do? You think that, we would say, well, the president has committed impregnable offenses of highest magnitude, and we shouldn’t do that because we don’t know what some senators are going to do? No. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been. Our military is completely rebuilt, with its power being unmatched anywhere in the world, and it’s not even close. It was February\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The day before the Senate voted to acquit Trump of both impeachment charges. President Trump was giving his State of the Union speech, and Pelosi went a step further than she’d ever gone before. She was sitting behind Trump, in her house. He’d chosen that night to honor right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who held notoriously homophobic views. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>And Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire, I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi sat there, lips pursed, looking down at the printed speech, looking away from the balcony where Limbaugh was, and toward her caucus in the audience. As Trump finished his speech, saying the best was yet to come, she stood up, not clapping, but ripping up the president’s printed remarks two or three pages at a time, biting her lip. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I didn’t intend to do that. It just was a manifesto of lies. And I wasn’t just gonna let that stand. I just wasn’t gonna let it stand. As courteous as we are to a guest in our house, when he abuses that courtesy, when he lies there the whole time, gives a medal of freedom to an anti-gay, blah, blah, and our house. Do that at the White House. We don’t agree with your choice, but that’s your choice. You’re the president, but don’t come here and sully the House of Representatives chamber. With your obnoxious behavior. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>Pelosi, at her heart, believes in institutions. She respects the separation of powers, the three branches of government, and the staying power of those institutions. But to me, it seemed like at that moment something changed for her, not even standing with polite, respectful applause for the president as she did behind President George W. Bush for both of his State of the Union addresses when she was speaker, instead A stunning act of defiance on primetime television. Nine months later, Joe Biden won the presidential election. Trump was out. On January 6, 2021, Pelosi, along with Vice President Mike Pence, were overseeing the certification of the election. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We didn’t anticipate violence. We didn’t expect the President of the United States to incite an insurrection.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>We’re starting to get surrounded. They’re taking the north-west scaffolding. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Protesters attack the west side of the Capitol, where presidential inauguration ceremonies are held. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Security came to me and they said we’re taking you out I said I can handle this guy you know we’re ready \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>We are walking over now to the tunnel\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We could see on TV, because when you’re in the chamber, you can’t see. You see on tv what was happening, that they were coming to the Capitol. It’s really hard to explain. This is the citadel of democracy to the world. And these people are coming in, breaking windows, and they go in, and we’re seeing them go into the Capitol with Dixie flags, you know, Confederate flags, under the dome that Lincoln built when he was president. He built it during the Civil War. People said to him, use the steel for the war and the personnel for the War. He said. No, we have to show the world that we are resilient. So they continue with the dome. Under Lincoln’s dome, Confederate flags. One guy with a shirt, six million Jews were not enough. Auschwitz. That’s. What this was, assaulting police, all the rest of that, defecating on the floor. I say this because this brute who was president now wants to give them money for killing or endangering the lives of police officers. They were gonna get a bullet in my effing brain. They use the F word a lot about me throughout the whole thing. They were going to hang the vice president. Gallows for him.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>No doubt, many in the mob hated Pelosi. They came looking for her. They broke into her speaker’s office. A man put his feet up on her desk. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>Where are you Nancy? We’re looking for you! She’s in jail!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Have you ever, you know, given yourself the permission to think about what would have happened if they had found you?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, here’s the thing that I thought. I wasn’t really thinking so much about my personal safety. I was thinking about my grandson who was with me. His mother, Alexandra, took the boys to see an historic event, the transfer of power.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But something fundamental had broken.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And this vile creature, the vilest creature to ever crawl the face of the earth. And they said, well, what about Hitler? I said, he wasn’t president of the United States. Insights are an insurrection, sits in his office, and then won’t let the police, the National Guard come and then lies about it the whole time. I called the governor of Virginia. They said they had their troops ready. These people are so idiotic, but let’s put that over all of them. The secretary of the army who had the jurisdiction to. So I have to talk to my boss. That’s the secretary of defense. Haven’t you done that yet? Well, this is hard. It’s complicated. It takes time. I said, they have been attacking the Capitol. Well, I have to go ask my boss and well, you have to have authority at the location. I said there, look, authority is there. You need to be able to send the national guard. But they may, they avoided everything about it because their boss. The Commander-in-Chief, who can say over any of that, was just holding them back. And even some of the Republicans were asking the President to call off those guys, and he still wouldn’t do it. This is, I want to tell you something, this is a demonic figure, this guy who is unfortunately in the White House.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I know you’re very religious. Did you pray?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Of course we prayed, prayed for our country. We prayed for those who were under assault.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A few hours after the attack, authorities confirmed the Capitol had been secured. Congress was going to continue certifying the election results\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I said, you know what, we’re going to the floor. That’s where this assault occurred, that’s where we’re going back to show the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the early hours of the morning on January 7th, 2021, the election was certified. In his final days in office, Nancy Pelosi would lead another impeachment against President Trump for inciting the insurrection. The FBI investigated the rioters. There were prosecutions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>The Arkansas man who was photographed on January 6th with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk was sentenced yesterday. He got four and a half years in prison. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Biden became president. Working together in the midst of the COVID pandemic, he and Pelosi muscled some big bills through a divided Congress. The Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act. But during her last years as speaker, Pelosi made headlines for another reason. In 2021, at a press conference, a reporter from Business Insider asked Pelosi a question.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Business Insider Reporter: \u003c/strong>Should members of Congress and their spouses be banned from trading individual stocks while serving in Congress? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I don’t know to this second one, we have a responsibility to report in the stock, on the stock but I’m not familiar with that five month review but if people aren’t reporting they should be. Because this is a free market and people, we have a free-market economy, they should be able to participate in that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi was firm in her response. No ban on stock trading. At that moment, she didn’t see the backlash, but it had been coming for years. Back in 2011, Pelosi had just gotten the Affordable Care Act across the finish line. She lost the speakership, but was still leader of House Democrats. Then, the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes published a bombshell investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Schweizer: \u003c/strong>There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical. I think it’s highly offensive and wrong.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Peter Schweizer, the main source in the story. At the time, Schweizer was a fellow at the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank. He’d been criticized as early as 1993 for fabricating sources and events in his book, Friendly Spies. He’d go on to publish Clinton Cash in 2015, a book that Media Matters concluded contained over 20 errors, fabrications, and distortions. On 60 Minutes, Schweiser claimed that members of Congress… Have been trading stocks based on inside information.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Schweizer: \u003c/strong>We know that during the health care debate, people were trading health care stocks. We know during the financial crisis of 2008, they were getting out of the market before the rest of America really knew what was going on.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The 60 Minutes story didn’t exclusively focus on Pelosi. They called out other lawmakers, too, including Republican Speaker John Boehner. But the report looked at an incident from 2008. Pelosi’s husband, Paul, had bought shares of stock from Visa, the credit card company. The report called into question whether the family’s investment influenced Pelosi’s decision-making around regulations to protect credit card consumers. To investigate this, the 60 Minutes correspondent, Steve Croft, went to a press conference and asked Pelosi about it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft: \u003c/strong>Madam Leader, I wanted to ask you why you and your husband back in March of 2008 accepted and participated in a very large IPO deal from Visa, at a time there was major legislation affecting the credit card companies making its way through the house, and did you consider that to be a conflict of interest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I don’t know what your point is of your question. Is there some point that you want to make with that? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>This response is classic Pelosi, full-throated denial.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It’s not true, and that’s that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I don’t understand what part’s not true.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Yes, sir, that I would act upon an investment\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After the piece aired, Pelosi’s office put out a statement. It denied that her decisions about regulating credit card companies were swayed by her husband’s stock purchases. The statement said, quote, It is very troubling that 60 Minutes would base their reporting off of an already discredited conservative author who has made a career out of attacking Democrats. Peter Schweizer was a close ally of Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s top advisors. Schweizer would become editor of the far-right website Breitbart News. It’s true that Democrats had introduced a bill that would regulate credit card swipe fees in the House and that the bill died later that year. But Pelosi said it wasn’t because she was trying to help her husband’s portfolio. By the time the bill made it out of committee, Pelosi said, it was too late to bring the for a vote before the session ended. The Democratic congressman who introduced the bill, John Conyers from Michigan, said even if they’d somehow managed to pass it, President Bush would probably have vetoed it. So Pelosi said they waited until President Obama was in the White House to push card regulations through. In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act included a cap on debit card swipe fees and other protections for credit card consumers. There are lots of moving parts here. It’s hard to say definitively what happened or why. But the accusations were very powerful. They touched a nerve. In 2012, public anger about the issue of stock trading in Congress was mounting. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft: \u003c/strong>Both the House and the\u003cem> \u003c/em>Senate in a rare display of bipartisanship overwhelmingly passed the Stock Act, which prohibits its members from trading on non-public information gathered during the course of their duties.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Congress passed the Stock Act, stopped trading on congressional knowledge. It’s been said sunlight is the best disinfectant, meaning transparency. The Stock Act required members of Congress to disclose their trades within 30 to 45 days of making them. But the issue didn’t go away. Actually, with the information available to the public, people became more aware of how much money Congress members were making on stock trading. There are even apps you can use to track and literally copy the same stock trades the Pelosi’s and other members of Congress do. When Pelosi came to Congress, she and her husband were already wealthy. Her husband is a finance guy. The family had at least $610,000 worth in stocks. In today’s money, that’s something like 1.8 million. The stock research platform, Quiver Quantitative, estimates that her family currently holds around $135 million in publicly traded assets. In 2021, Pelosi ranked in the top 25 richest people in Congress. Here’s Hillary Brossith, she’s executive director at OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks money and politics. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hilary Braseth: \u003c/strong>We often find that some of the highest drivers of traffic to our site are citizens who are curious about the net worth of any given member of Congress. And Nancy Pelosi, I think in many ways, is one of the main profiles that we often see folks looking up, perhaps because she has quite high of a net worth.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now, owning stocks can benefit anyone, but the richer you are and the more stocks you own, the more you make when the market goes up. Having private briefings, like members of Congress do, can give them a leg up before the market reacts to news. Business Insider recently published an investigation that found that dozens of Congress members have violated federal conflict of interest laws. Pelosi wasn’t on that list, but many of her colleagues were accused of disclosing after the required disclosure window. And a few were accused of insider trading. It seems obvious that banning members of Congress from trading stocks wouldn’t just stop the practice from happening, but would also remove the appearance of a conflict, but Pelosi opposed it. When Pelosi first ran for her seat back in 1987, her opponents argued that Pelosi’s wealth would put her out of touch with working class people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carol Ruth Silver: \u003c/strong>How can she relate to people like me, a single parent, working mother, or somebody else? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Fast forward to 2020. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pelosi went on the James Corden show.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Corden: \u003c/strong>Welcome back, we’re here with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and we’ve asked her to share something from her home for late, late show and tell. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the segment she showed her freezer full of ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Speaker Pelosi, what have you found? I don’t know what I would have done if ice cream were not invented.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>People were losing their jobs, terrified about the economy. Trump’s reelection campaign seized on an opportunity to punch back at Pelosi. They posted a video on YouTube called Let Them Eat Ice Cream, Nancy Antoinette, a reference to the infamous Queen of France. It featured the James Corden interview with some creative edits. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video: \u003c/strong>Speaker Pelosi, what are you gonna share with us from your home? Chocolate candy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video: \u003c/strong>Thousands have been forced to wait for hours at food banks all across the country. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video:\u003c/strong>Oh my chocolate and then we have some other chocolate \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It was a partisan attack, but like her opposition to the congressional stock trading ban, the moment highlighted one of Pelosi’s weaknesses. She can be a little tone deaf to how her own behavior strikes others and how it stokes anger. When we started making this podcast, I knew I wanted to ask Pelosi about congressional stock trading, but I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to bringing it up. I know how she can sometimes go into attack mode when she’s asked about a topic she doesn’t like. She completely rejects accusations that she used knowledge gained as a member of Congress to make favorable stock transactions. She defended her stock trades to me as something everyone does.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>My point of view is if family has investments, stock, I’m not talking about big deal. Most people don’t even realize that their 401k is in the stock market. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But there are a lot of people who’ve come to Congress and left with a lot more money than they got there. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If they’re doing something illegal, then they should be charged with that. They have investigated me personally, politically, economically, all the time. They have never come up with anything. They’ve spent a lot of money and a lot time. They can say I have cloven feet and horns in my head and I’m a devil and the rest of that, but they’ve never come with anything that I did anything wrong in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Josh Hawley was on Fox News saying that, you know, insider trading corruption should be prosecuted.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Not me. Nobody’s ever accused me… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Well, he was referring to you. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2023, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced the Pelosi act preventing elected leaders from owning securities and investments. I tried asking Pelosi why she didn’t try and pass a ban when she was leader. So you don’t feel that not getting that passed is a negative part of your legacy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I don’t at all, because the people who, the members didn’t, it’s up to the members to get something passed like that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Yeah, although as leader, you have a lot of say in what the caucus wants to do. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t. All you need is a few people to say, we’re not doing this. And some of them were in the leadership. They just thought it was insulting to the members to say you don’t have any values and you don’t have any judgment. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But now she says she does support a ban on stock trading for members of Congress. So I kept pushing her. What changed? You oppose that for many years and I’m wondering.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t pose it for many years. I posed it when they suggested it, and then Kalkus said they won it and I supported it. It didn’t come forward because there weren’t the votes to bring it forward.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>At the top of the episode, I mentioned a stock trading ban passed Congress in July. But Pelosi didn’t vote for it, because she says it exempted the president.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>It was a terrible bill. And we wanted it to be more comprehensive, including the President of the United States, because they would never get that signed by the President of the United States. But if you look at that bill, it is totally incomplete. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now, Pelosi doesn’t like to back down, especially when she feels like these are partisan attacks. But she also knows that appearances matter, and they can undercut trust in elected officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We want to do whatever it takes, and that means even this issue, to restore the confidence people have in the system. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Hilary Braseth of Open Secrets again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hilary Braseth: \u003c/strong>Earlier this year, there was a survey that roughly 75% of the country thinks that there is too much money in politics and does not like it. And so this really presents a quandary that those who get elected into public office tend to benefit from the system as it’s designed and don’t have much incentive to change the system or to create tighter rules around how much money they can raise, whether or not they can trade stocks based on. Knowledge they might be privy to.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Senate Democrats ended up blocking the stock trading ban. They promised future reform, but needless to say, any ban passed now wouldn’t take effect until Pelosi leaves office. It’s been over five years since the violent riot at the Capitol. A lot has changed since then. Back in 2018, to round up votes to regain the gavel, Pelosi agreed to a four-year limit on her second speakership. And in 2023, after Democrats lost the House, she stepped down from leadership. President Trump is back in power after defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Republicans also maintain control of the House. And after he came back into office, President Trump pardoned those who’d been successfully prosecuted for their role in the January 6th attacks. The formal office of the Speaker of the House is historic and spacious, with vaulted ceilings and ornate wooden furniture, outer sitting areas full of comfortable couches and arm chairs. From a window you can see out across the National Mall. But that’s no longer Pelosi’s domain. Her party’s in the minority now, and her current office? It’s nice enough, but decidedly un-grand. It’s relatively cramped, packed with memorabilia. Colorful gavels, gifts from her constituents, chocolate for people who come to visit her, and sitting on a table, a pair of pink boxing gloves with her initials, NP, bedazzled in rhinestones, a gift from her friend Barbara Boxer. They were a little joke, boxing gloves from a boxer, but I think they really fit. No matter the cost, she goes down swinging. She’s not the speaker anymore, but she’s still Pelosi, calling shots behind the scenes, doing her best to shape the future of a Democratic party that’s up for grabs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We’re seeing a lot of turmoil in the Democratic Party in terms of candidates. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I disagree with your terminology. A lot of turmoil in the Democratic Party. There isn’t a lot of turmoil.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s coming up next week on The Speaker. The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. It’s reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound designed by Christopher Beale. Fact checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Sussman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor-in-chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California local.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2016,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi was planning on retiring from Congress. But Donald Trump’s presidential victory disrupted her plans, and her legacy. Pelosi’s public battles with the President cemented her status as a liberal warrior – spearheading two impeachments and navigating the January 6th attack. But to some in her caucus, including the young progressives of “The Squad,” Pelosi’s approach wasn’t enough to address a new wave of populism and a growing mistrust of government. And amidst this politically fraught landscape, did Pelosi’s actions around stock trading — or inaction, according to some — add fuel to the fire?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Last episode, we focused on the Affordable Care Act, which then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pushed through Congress. But when you ask people about Pelosi, like our producer Ariella Markowitz did on the streets in DC, something else tends to come up. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Last episode, we focused on the Affordable Care Act, which then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pushed through Congress. But when you ask people about Pelosi, like our producer Ariella Markowitz did on the streets in DC, something else tends to come up. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>What comes to mind when you think of Nancy Pelosi?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vox 1: \u003c/strong>Man, California, stocks, stock trades, that’s funny. Insider stock trading. He defends that, he’s gotten quite wealthy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vox 1: \u003c/strong>Man, California, stocks, stock trades, that’s funny. Insider stock trading. He defends that, he’s gotten quite wealthy. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vox 2:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>She has manipulated her position and used it to her benefit.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It’s something her opponents bring up a lot. Here’s President Trump earlier this year during his State of the Union address. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It’s something her opponents bring up a lot. Here’s President Trump earlier this year during his State of the Union address. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>Let’s also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information. They stood up for that, I can’t believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she’s here? Doubt it. Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>Let’s also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information. They stood up for that, I can’t believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she’s here? Doubt it. Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A few months later, the House passed a stock trading ban for members of Congress, and Nancy Pelosi voted against it. Some Democrats had an issue with the bill because it included an unrelated voter ID provision, which many critics say is really a way of suppressing Democratic turnout in elections. And the stock trading bill? It wouldn’t have applied if it were the president. Profiteering by President Trump and his family, including prolific stock trading, are a trademark of his second term. But to many, the name Pelosi triggers allegations of corruption. In her second run as Speaker, Pelosi and President Trump became full-on enemies, locked in public brawls that would define both of their legacies. But Pelosi doesn’t really want to go there.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A few months later, the House passed a stock trading ban for members of Congress, and Nancy Pelosi voted against it. Some Democrats had an issue with the bill because it included an unrelated voter ID provision, which many critics say is really a way of suppressing Democratic turnout in elections. And the stock trading bill? It wouldn’t have applied if it were the president. Profiteering by President Trump and his family, including prolific stock trading, are a trademark of his second term. But to many, the name Pelosi triggers allegations of corruption. In her second run as Speaker, Pelosi and President Trump became full-on enemies, locked in public brawls that would define both of their legacies. But Pelosi doesn’t really want to go there.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about Trump, so…\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I know he’s not your favorite.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, it’s not my favorite compared to almost any creature crawling the earth. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Still, this creature has defined her final chapter in unexpected ways. From KQED, this is The Speaker. I’m Scott Shafer. Today, how Pelosi responds to what she and many see as a fundamental threat to democracy. President Trump. And with faith in the Democratic Party and public trust in U.S. Institutions at their lowest in decades, the shadow that hangs over her legacy. Accusations of insider stock trading in Congress. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Still, this creature has defined her final chapter in unexpected ways. From KQED, this is The Speaker. I’m Scott Shafer. Today, how Pelosi responds to what she and many see as a fundamental threat to democracy. President Trump. And with faith in the Democratic Party and public trust in U.S. Institutions at their lowest in decades, the shadow that hangs over her legacy. Accusations of insider stock trading in Congress. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi says she planned on retiring after the 2016 election. She would have been 76 years old, and she was assuming that a Democrat would win. You were really ready to say, that’s it, I’m done.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, I was ready to say it a number of times, but I only thought I would go 10 years. I never thought I’d run for Congress, much less for leadership. And then the members, you have to stay, you have stay, you to stay. And so I did.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She thought her crowning achievement, the Affordable Care Act, her baby, would be protected under a President Hillary Clinton. On November 8, 2016, Pelosi was in Washington with her colleagues, waiting for the returns to come in.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>One of my colleagues was the chairman of the party in Philadelphia. And we were getting returns from him saying, they told us if we got over 500,000 in Philadelphia, we would carry Pennsylvania. So one night he’d say, it’s getting closer, but we’re okay, it was getting closer. Then finally he said, you know, the turnout from McCall, but you know just naming the names of some counties is just unprecedented. We’re not gonna be able to offset it. I was like getting kicked in the back by a mule.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>One of my colleagues was the chairman of the party in Philadelphia. And we were getting returns from him saying, they told us if we got over 500,000 in Philadelphia, we would carry Pennsylvania. So one night he’d say, it’s getting closer, but we’re okay, it was getting closer. Then finally he said, you know, the turnout from McCall, but you know just naming the names of some counties is just unprecedented. We’re not gonna be able to offset it. I was like getting kicked in the back by a mule.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>During his first campaign for president, Trump had leaned into people’s cynicism and mistrust of politicians.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>During his first campaign for president, Trump had leaned into people’s cynicism and mistrust of politicians.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>If we win on November 8th, we are going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. We’re draining the swamp.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>If we win on November 8th, we are going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. We’re draining the swamp.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After he won, President Trump issued a flurry of executive orders and policies. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After he won, President Trump issued a flurry of executive orders and policies. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>President Trump’s most recent executive order effectively banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. For at least 90 days. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>President Trump’s most recent executive order effectively banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. For at least 90 days. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>Today President Donald Trump is continuing to defend his administration’s policy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>Today President Donald Trump is continuing to defend his administration’s policy. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>When you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>When you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And, in 2017, when white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And, in 2017, when white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>There are people, bodies laying on the ground right now.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>There are people, bodies laying on the ground right now.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>NAZIS GO HOME! \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>NAZIS GO HOME! \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In response to the violence, Trump said this.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In response to the violence, Trump said this.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>Very fine people on both sides \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the midst of all this, Pelosi and Democrats campaigned hard to defeat Republicans in the 2018 midterms. But economic unrest was starting to influence the Democratic Party’s politics. For years there had been discontent on the left about the 2008 bailout and economic disparity. A movement called Occupy Wall Street kicked off in 2011. The slogan was, we are the 99 percent. In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders had been a grassroots presidential candidate, and he was popular. More than 40 percent of people who voted in the primaries wanted him to be the nominee.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the midst of all this, Pelosi and Democrats campaigned hard to defeat Republicans in the 2018 midterms. But economic unrest was starting to influence the Democratic Party’s politics. For years there had been discontent on the left about the 2008 bailout and economic disparity. A movement called Occupy Wall Street kicked off in 2011. The slogan was, we are the 99 percent. In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders had been a grassroots presidential candidate, and he was popular. More than 40 percent of people who voted in the primaries wanted him to be the nominee.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bernie Sanders: \u003c/strong>The reason that we have done so well, the reason I believe we’re going to do so well in the Hampshire and in the other states that follow, the reason is the American people are saying no to a rigged economy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bernie Sanders: \u003c/strong>The reason that we have done so well, the reason I believe we’re going to do so well in the Hampshire and in the other states that follow, the reason is the American people are saying no to a rigged economy. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Sanders had run on a message about economic inequality.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bernie Sanders: \u003c/strong>They no longer want to see an economy in which the average American works longer hours for low wages while almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1%.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bernie Sanders: \u003c/strong>They no longer want to see an economy in which the average American works longer hours for low wages while almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1%.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Some people argue that this energy helped Democrats take back the House in 2018, two years into Trump’s presidency. They’d been out of power since the Tea Party had stormed into Congress almost a decade earlier. That election night, Pelosi took the stage again to the chants of \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Thank you all, thank you all very much, remember this feeling, know the power to win. Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans, it’s about restoring the Constitution’s checks and balances to the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Thank you all, thank you all very much, remember this feeling, know the power to win. Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans, it’s about restoring the Constitution’s checks and balances to the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And with that election, a wave of newcomers with bold ideas, including four progressive women who became known as the Squad. Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, Ilhan Omar from Minnesota, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, from New York. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And with that election, a wave of newcomers with bold ideas, including four progressive women who became known as the Squad. Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, Ilhan Omar from Minnesota, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, from New York. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>I think what we’ve seen is that working-class Americans want a clear champion and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>I think what we’ve seen is that working-class Americans want a clear champion and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>AOC is a democratic socialist, like Bernie Sanders. She defeated Joe Crowley, one of Pelosi’s top deputies in leadership. Many had actually seen Crowley as the person best positioned to become speaker after Pelosi left. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>AOC is a democratic socialist, like Bernie Sanders. She defeated Joe Crowley, one of Pelosi’s top deputies in leadership. Many had actually seen Crowley as the person best positioned to become speaker after Pelosi left. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>He didn’t pay enough attention to his district. That, you know, that’s really what it is. It was an election in the summer. So I had very low turnout. I mean, he was predicating his success on how things go in a full election. But AOC ran a great campaign and it was stunning because he’s terrific and respected and he was chair of the caucus, I think, at the time. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>He didn’t pay enough attention to his district. That, you know, that’s really what it is. It was an election in the summer. So I had very low turnout. I mean, he was predicating his success on how things go in a full election. But AOC ran a great campaign and it was stunning because he’s terrific and respected and he was chair of the caucus, I think, at the time. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Needless to say, there was some friction between the new members and the old guard. Before being sworn in, AOC joined a climate protest outside Pelosi’s office. People are holding yellow signs that say Green Jobs for All.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Needless to say, there was some friction between the new members and the old guard. Before being sworn in, AOC joined a climate protest outside Pelosi’s office. People are holding yellow signs that say Green Jobs for All.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>I just want to let you all know how proud I am of each and every single one of you for putting yourselves and your bodies and everything on the line to make sure that we save our planet, our generation, and our home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>I just want to let you all know how proud I am of each and every single one of you for putting yourselves and your bodies and everything on the line to make sure that we save our planet, our generation, and our home.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi told me she was the wrong target for their protest.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi told me she was the wrong target for their protest.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>They should not have been in my office as a start because we had done more on climate than anybody.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>They should not have been in my office as a start because we had done more on climate than anybody.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Once they won back the House, some new, younger members were among those questioning whether Pelosi was the right leader for the House Democrats. But after cutting some deals, Pelosi was easily elected speaker for a second time. The squad cast their votes for her, too. Her swearing in was joyous.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I’d like to call my grandchildren up to be here when I take you, and any other children who want to join them. Come on, kids. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I’d like to call my grandchildren up to be here when I take you, and any other children who want to join them. Come on, kids. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She’d have her work cut out for her. In June of 2019, the House was considering an appropriations bill that would provide funds to process and detain migrants at the border, but also for an emergency food and shelter program, money to help deal with what people were calling a humanitarian crisis. This bill was being debated a year after the Trump administration rolled out and then backed down on a policy that criminally prosecuted all adults crossing the border without papers. The Zero Tolerance Policy meant children were separated from their parents. It was something AOC spoke about at an oversight committee hearing in July 2019. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She’d have her work cut out for her. In June of 2019, the House was considering an appropriations bill that would provide funds to process and detain migrants at the border, but also for an emergency food and shelter program, money to help deal with what people were calling a humanitarian crisis. This bill was being debated a year after the Trump administration rolled out and then backed down on a policy that criminally prosecuted all adults crossing the border without papers. The Zero Tolerance Policy meant children were separated from their parents. It was something AOC spoke about at an oversight committee hearing in July 2019. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>And what was worse about this, Mr. Chairman, was the fact that there were American flags hanging all over these facilities, that children being separated from their parents in front of an American flag.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>And what was worse about this, Mr. Chairman, was the fact that there were American flags hanging all over these facilities, that children being separated from their parents in front of an American flag.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Progressives didn’t want to give more money to the agencies that carried out Trump’s harsh border policies. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders negotiated with them, added additional health and safety standards for migrant children to the bill, but the squad still defected. They were the only Democrats to vote no on the House bill. You described the squad as just four votes. It was. That’s what it was. It was four votes This may sound harsh, but it’s how Pelosi sees things. They were a small obstacle that didn’t affect her vote count. But Pelosi would be challenged again by the progressive wing when she had to give up the House bill with stronger protections for a Senate version. She was disappointed that Senate Democrats hadn’t fought for a better bill, but she decided to compromise and push it through. That caused public outrage from House progressives. AOC took her issues with Pelosi public. She said in an interview with the Washington Post… That she felt the squad had been singled out by Pelosi, implied it was because they were four women of color. AOC’s chief of staff compared centrist Democrats to segregationists on Twitter. He asked why this so-called legislative mastermind, referring to Pelosi, couldn’t get more done on kitchen table issues. By some accounts, Pelosi was furious. Even today, you can hear the annoyance in her voice.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Progressives didn’t want to give more money to the agencies that carried out Trump’s harsh border policies. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders negotiated with them, added additional health and safety standards for migrant children to the bill, but the squad still defected. They were the only Democrats to vote no on the House bill. You described the squad as just four votes. It was. That’s what it was. It was four votes This may sound harsh, but it’s how Pelosi sees things. They were a small obstacle that didn’t affect her vote count. But Pelosi would be challenged again by the progressive wing when she had to give up the House bill with stronger protections for a Senate version. She was disappointed that Senate Democrats hadn’t fought for a better bill, but she decided to compromise and push it through. That caused public outrage from House progressives. AOC took her issues with Pelosi public. She said in an interview with the Washington Post… That she felt the squad had been singled out by Pelosi, implied it was because they were four women of color. AOC’s chief of staff compared centrist Democrats to segregationists on Twitter. He asked why this so-called legislative mastermind, referring to Pelosi, couldn’t get more done on kitchen table issues. By some accounts, Pelosi was furious. Even today, you can hear the annoyance in her voice.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If you want to legislate, don’t be on airwaves criticizing the people whose votes you need. You can be here as a legislator where you need the votes of people for an issue that you may want to advance, or you can be an internet where you’re here to criticize your colleagues and expect them to vote for your bill.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In one closed-door meeting with her Democratic caucus, she told them to bring their grievances to her, not tweet about them to the public. She said at the end of the day, her goal was to help the children. She told them, some of you are here to make a beautiful pate, but we’re making sausage most of the time. Our producer Ariella asked Representative Ilhan Omar, part of the squad, about this.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In one closed-door meeting with her Democratic caucus, she told them to bring their grievances to her, not tweet about them to the public. She said at the end of the day, her goal was to help the children. She told them, some of you are here to make a beautiful pate, but we’re making sausage most of the time. Our producer Ariella asked Representative Ilhan Omar, part of the squad, about this.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>She was giving speeches about sausages versus pates and all of this. What do you think about that got under her skin? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>She was giving speeches about sausages versus pates and all of this. What do you think about that got under her skin? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilhan Omar: \u003c/strong>I think she herself saw herself as a progressive and in some ways might’ve felt insulted that the progressive movement didn’t think of her as being one of them. And she felt like because she was the speaker and she’s the leader for the whole caucus and the whole House, that the decisions that she had to make had to be for the good of the whole.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilhan Omar: \u003c/strong>I think she herself saw herself as a progressive and in some ways might’ve felt insulted that the progressive movement didn’t think of her as being one of them. And she felt like because she was the speaker and she’s the leader for the whole caucus and the whole House, that the decisions that she had to make had to be for the good of the whole.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now as I thought about these showdowns between the squad and the speaker, I remember how Pelosi herself had sort of ignored Congressional norms when she got to Washington. So I asked her how she felt about AOC. I wonder if you saw a little bit of yourself in her.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now as I thought about these showdowns between the squad and the speaker, I remember how Pelosi herself had sort of ignored Congressional norms when she got to Washington. So I asked her how she felt about AOC. I wonder if you saw a little bit of yourself in her.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t at all.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I don’t know. Well, wait until you hear the question. Well, you just asked it, and I said no. I mean, whatBrase I’m thinking of is when you first got there in your very first speech, you talked about AIDS. You were kind of breaking the protocol a little bit. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I don’t know. Well, wait until you hear the question. Well, you just asked it, and I said no. I mean, whatBrase I’m thinking of is when you first got there in your very first speech, you talked about AIDS. You were kind of breaking the protocol a little bit. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>She’s operational, make no mistake, some of those squads are not. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Say what you mean by that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Operational is that she knows that she wants to accomplish something. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Operational. This is one of Pelosi’s favorite words. It’s what Congresswoman Sala Burton said about Pelosi before she endorsed her back in 1987. So when Pelosi called AOC operational, this was a mark of respect. She’s learned how to get things done. Here’s the thing, Pelosi comes from progressive San Francisco. She thinks of herself as a liberal, cares about things like ending poverty, providing health care, and believes the government should be a force for good. But she values something else, too, maybe even more than anything else, being effective. It means working within a system she ultimately believes in to get things done, being willing to compromise in the process. But in this era of President Trump… Was being operational enough? Even though she loathed President Trump, Pelosi tried to enter their first meeting with an open mind. Out of respect for the institution.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Operational. This is one of Pelosi’s favorite words. It’s what Congresswoman Sala Burton said about Pelosi before she endorsed her back in 1987. So when Pelosi called AOC operational, this was a mark of respect. She’s learned how to get things done. Here’s the thing, Pelosi comes from progressive San Francisco. She thinks of herself as a liberal, cares about things like ending poverty, providing health care, and believes the government should be a force for good. But she values something else, too, maybe even more than anything else, being effective. It means working within a system she ultimately believes in to get things done, being willing to compromise in the process. But in this era of President Trump… Was being operational enough? Even though she loathed President Trump, Pelosi tried to enter their first meeting with an open mind. Out of respect for the institution.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>This is historic. It’s a meeting between the new president and the leadership of the Congress, bipartisan leadership in the Congress. I’ve been in that meeting many times with President Bush, Obama. It’s historic. And so I’m sitting there thinking, why don’t we begin? Will he quote the Bible? Will he talk about America and founders and what America means to us? And we talk about his family and what this… Means to him, how will he begin this meeting? He leans over on the desk like this, the table, and says, you know, I won the popular vote. It was totally offensive. So I thought, well, that’s not true. That’s not truth. And he said, well I’m not even counting California.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>This is historic. It’s a meeting between the new president and the leadership of the Congress, bipartisan leadership in the Congress. I’ve been in that meeting many times with President Bush, Obama. It’s historic. And so I’m sitting there thinking, why don’t we begin? Will he quote the Bible? Will he talk about America and founders and what America means to us? And we talk about his family and what this… Means to him, how will he begin this meeting? He leans over on the desk like this, the table, and says, you know, I won the popular vote. It was totally offensive. So I thought, well, that’s not true. That’s not truth. And he said, well I’m not even counting California.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The relationship went downhill from there. You may remember some of those moments, like in 2018 when Pelosi walked out of a meeting with Trump in a red coat and Armani sunglasses looking completely relaxed. She put her sunglasses on right in time for the photos. The image went viral.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The relationship went downhill from there. You may remember some of those moments, like in 2018 when Pelosi walked out of a meeting with Trump in a red coat and Armani sunglasses looking completely relaxed. She put her sunglasses on right in time for the photos. The image went viral.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>The new power suit for women, red coats, sunglasses, nerves of steel. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>The new power suit for women, red coats, sunglasses, nerves of steel. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I had no idea, I just put on my coat and walked out to the press, which is outside. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Or you may remember her dressed in all white, standing behind the president. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Or you may remember her dressed in all white, standing behind the president. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>But Nancy Pelosi became the queen of condescending applause. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>But Nancy Pelosi became the queen of condescending applause. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clapping sarcastically at Trump during his 2019 State of the Union address. She clearly wasn’t intimidated by him. After all, this is the same woman who called Bush incompetent on national TV and refused to apologize for it. To me, it seems like Pelosi was adapting to the moment. She was smart enough to sense that in this era of politics, it’s those viral images that stick with people, not the closed-door legislative rooms Pelosi was used cutting deals in. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clapping sarcastically at Trump during his 2019 State of the Union address. She clearly wasn’t intimidated by him. After all, this is the same woman who called Bush incompetent on national TV and refused to apologize for it. To me, it seems like Pelosi was adapting to the moment. She was smart enough to sense that in this era of politics, it’s those viral images that stick with people, not the closed-door legislative rooms Pelosi was used cutting deals in. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>The fact is, people want to see moments. You know, I hear speeches, they want to see moments, what people are happy about is that I did that, that I pointed to him, that I walked out of the office, because it spoke to their, how they felt or believed at the time. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>The fact is, people want to see moments. You know, I hear speeches, they want to see moments, what people are happy about is that I did that, that I pointed to him, that I walked out of the office, because it spoke to their, how they felt or believed at the time. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She was getting under his skin. To those in the Trump 1.0 administration, Pelosi was an obstructionist. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She was getting under his skin. To those in the Trump 1.0 administration, Pelosi was an obstructionist. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>Nancy was just so difficult to work with. Again, she may take that as a badge of honor, and I get it, there’s a lot of Republicans who take their unwillingness to compromise with Democrats as a badge of honor. So she’s not unique in that, but she had zero interest in doing anything with Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>Nancy was just so difficult to work with. Again, she may take that as a badge of honor, and I get it, there’s a lot of Republicans who take their unwillingness to compromise with Democrats as a badge of honor. So she’s not unique in that, but she had zero interest in doing anything with Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Mick Mulvaney, who was President Trump’s chief of staff when Pelosi regained the speakership. We talked to him last episode, a Tea Party guy who campaigned for his House seat against the Affordable Care Act and won. He said President Trump respected Pelosi at first.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Mick Mulvaney, who was President Trump’s chief of staff when Pelosi regained the speakership. We talked to him last episode, a Tea Party guy who campaigned for his House seat against the Affordable Care Act and won. He said President Trump respected Pelosi at first.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>He respects strength and that’s certainly what she has. When she was doing what she was doing, she had a margin roughly the same size that Mike Johnson has today in the House. And she was able to corral her party and he respected that. But at the end of the day, she had zero interest in being with the guy and I think the country is worse for it. If they had wanted to sit down and cut some deals, they could have had a tremendous bipartisan deal on infrastructure. I even think they could’ve had a tremendous bipartisan on immigration. But it was fight, fight, fighting the whole time. And it was bitter and poisonous.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>He respects strength and that’s certainly what she has. When she was doing what she was doing, she had a margin roughly the same size that Mike Johnson has today in the House. And she was able to corral her party and he respected that. But at the end of the day, she had zero interest in being with the guy and I think the country is worse for it. If they had wanted to sit down and cut some deals, they could have had a tremendous bipartisan deal on infrastructure. I even think they could’ve had a tremendous bipartisan on immigration. But it was fight, fight, fighting the whole time. And it was bitter and poisonous.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>While Republicans felt Pelosi was just an obstacle to getting anything done, many Democrats were calling for Trump’s impeachment. But Pelosi was wary.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>While Republicans felt Pelosi was just an obstacle to getting anything done, many Democrats were calling for Trump’s impeachment. But Pelosi was wary.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>People wanted to impeach him just because he was obnoxious and dyed his hair orange. Everybody had a thing of he’s not really presidential. That’s not a cause for impeachment. You know what I’m saying?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>People wanted to impeach him just because he was obnoxious and dyed his hair orange. Everybody had a thing of he’s not really presidential. That’s not a cause for impeachment. You know what I’m saying?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But then, in the summer of 2019, President Trump gave Democrats their opportunity.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But then, in the summer of 2019, President Trump gave Democrats their opportunity.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I’ve said the only person who’s responsible for the impeachment of Donald Trump, not once but twice, is Donald Trump. He gave us no choice.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I’ve said the only person who’s responsible for the impeachment of Donald Trump, not once but twice, is Donald Trump. He gave us no choice.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A whistleblower said that in a phone call, Trump tried to get Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Trump’s rival in the upcoming election, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter. The White House released a transcript of the call, and President Trump tried to deflect to the debunked claim that Joe Biden was linked to a corruption scandal. And let me tell you something, Biden’s son is corrupt, and Biden is corrupt. To Pelosi, this attempt to interfere with the 2020 election was the unconstitutional violation Democrats could not ignore. This would be the grounds for the impeachment case.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A whistleblower said that in a phone call, Trump tried to get Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Trump’s rival in the upcoming election, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter. The White House released a transcript of the call, and President Trump tried to deflect to the debunked claim that Joe Biden was linked to a corruption scandal. And let me tell you something, Biden’s son is corrupt, and Biden is corrupt. To Pelosi, this attempt to interfere with the 2020 election was the unconstitutional violation Democrats could not ignore. This would be the grounds for the impeachment case.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>What he did was wrong. Now, different other things you could have included in that we said, you have to keep it simple. What is the thing that crosses the line, not just on its own might be grounds for impeachment, but not on the caliber of the Zelensky letter. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>What he did was wrong. Now, different other things you could have included in that we said, you have to keep it simple. What is the thing that crosses the line, not just on its own might be grounds for impeachment, but not on the caliber of the Zelensky letter. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But Pelosi didn’t revel in the impeachment, she actually silenced the applause after the impeachment vote with a stern glance and a hand gesture.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But Pelosi didn’t revel in the impeachment, she actually silenced the applause after the impeachment vote with a stern glance and a hand gesture.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Article 1 is adopted. The question is on adoption of Article 2.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Article 1 is adopted. The question is on adoption of Article 2.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You can count votes. You were probably, I’m guessing, pretty confident the Senate would not convict, right? They needed 67 votes. Why did you think it was important to go ahead and really start a process that you knew ultimately you would not?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You can count votes. You were probably, I’m guessing, pretty confident the Senate would not convict, right? They needed 67 votes. Why did you think it was important to go ahead and really start a process that you knew ultimately you would not?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We did succeed. We impeached him twice. But you think that we should be guided by what the Senate might do? You think that, we would say, well, the president has committed impregnable offenses of highest magnitude, and we shouldn’t do that because we don’t know what some senators are going to do? No. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We did succeed. We impeached him twice. But you think that we should be guided by what the Senate might do? You think that, we would say, well, the president has committed impregnable offenses of highest magnitude, and we shouldn’t do that because we don’t know what some senators are going to do? No. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been. Our military is completely rebuilt, with its power being unmatched anywhere in the world, and it’s not even close. It was February\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been. Our military is completely rebuilt, with its power being unmatched anywhere in the world, and it’s not even close. It was February\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The day before the Senate voted to acquit Trump of both impeachment charges. President Trump was giving his State of the Union speech, and Pelosi went a step further than she’d ever gone before. She was sitting behind Trump, in her house. He’d chosen that night to honor right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who held notoriously homophobic views. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The day before the Senate voted to acquit Trump of both impeachment charges. President Trump was giving his State of the Union speech, and Pelosi went a step further than she’d ever gone before. She was sitting behind Trump, in her house. He’d chosen that night to honor right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who held notoriously homophobic views. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>And Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire, I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>And Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire, I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi sat there, lips pursed, looking down at the printed speech, looking away from the balcony where Limbaugh was, and toward her caucus in the audience. As Trump finished his speech, saying the best was yet to come, she stood up, not clapping, but ripping up the president’s printed remarks two or three pages at a time, biting her lip. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi sat there, lips pursed, looking down at the printed speech, looking away from the balcony where Limbaugh was, and toward her caucus in the audience. As Trump finished his speech, saying the best was yet to come, she stood up, not clapping, but ripping up the president’s printed remarks two or three pages at a time, biting her lip. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I didn’t intend to do that. It just was a manifesto of lies. And I wasn’t just gonna let that stand. I just wasn’t gonna let it stand. As courteous as we are to a guest in our house, when he abuses that courtesy, when he lies there the whole time, gives a medal of freedom to an anti-gay, blah, blah, and our house. Do that at the White House. We don’t agree with your choice, but that’s your choice. You’re the president, but don’t come here and sully the House of Representatives chamber. With your obnoxious behavior. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I didn’t intend to do that. It just was a manifesto of lies. And I wasn’t just gonna let that stand. I just wasn’t gonna let it stand. As courteous as we are to a guest in our house, when he abuses that courtesy, when he lies there the whole time, gives a medal of freedom to an anti-gay, blah, blah, and our house. Do that at the White House. We don’t agree with your choice, but that’s your choice. You’re the president, but don’t come here and sully the House of Representatives chamber. With your obnoxious behavior. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>Pelosi, at her heart, believes in institutions. She respects the separation of powers, the three branches of government, and the staying power of those institutions. But to me, it seemed like at that moment something changed for her, not even standing with polite, respectful applause for the president as she did behind President George W. Bush for both of his State of the Union addresses when she was speaker, instead A stunning act of defiance on primetime television. Nine months later, Joe Biden won the presidential election. Trump was out. On January 6, 2021, Pelosi, along with Vice President Mike Pence, were overseeing the certification of the election. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>Pelosi, at her heart, believes in institutions. She respects the separation of powers, the three branches of government, and the staying power of those institutions. But to me, it seemed like at that moment something changed for her, not even standing with polite, respectful applause for the president as she did behind President George W. Bush for both of his State of the Union addresses when she was speaker, instead A stunning act of defiance on primetime television. Nine months later, Joe Biden won the presidential election. Trump was out. On January 6, 2021, Pelosi, along with Vice President Mike Pence, were overseeing the certification of the election. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We didn’t anticipate violence. We didn’t expect the President of the United States to incite an insurrection.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>We’re starting to get surrounded. They’re taking the north-west scaffolding. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>We’re starting to get surrounded. They’re taking the north-west scaffolding. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Protesters attack the west side of the Capitol, where presidential inauguration ceremonies are held. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Protesters attack the west side of the Capitol, where presidential inauguration ceremonies are held. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Security came to me and they said we’re taking you out I said I can handle this guy you know we’re ready \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>We are walking over now to the tunnel\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We could see on TV, because when you’re in the chamber, you can’t see. You see on tv what was happening, that they were coming to the Capitol. It’s really hard to explain. This is the citadel of democracy to the world. And these people are coming in, breaking windows, and they go in, and we’re seeing them go into the Capitol with Dixie flags, you know, Confederate flags, under the dome that Lincoln built when he was president. He built it during the Civil War. People said to him, use the steel for the war and the personnel for the War. He said. No, we have to show the world that we are resilient. So they continue with the dome. Under Lincoln’s dome, Confederate flags. One guy with a shirt, six million Jews were not enough. Auschwitz. That’s. What this was, assaulting police, all the rest of that, defecating on the floor. I say this because this brute who was president now wants to give them money for killing or endangering the lives of police officers. They were gonna get a bullet in my effing brain. They use the F word a lot about me throughout the whole thing. They were going to hang the vice president. Gallows for him.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We could see on TV, because when you’re in the chamber, you can’t see. You see on tv what was happening, that they were coming to the Capitol. It’s really hard to explain. This is the citadel of democracy to the world. And these people are coming in, breaking windows, and they go in, and we’re seeing them go into the Capitol with Dixie flags, you know, Confederate flags, under the dome that Lincoln built when he was president. He built it during the Civil War. People said to him, use the steel for the war and the personnel for the War. He said. No, we have to show the world that we are resilient. So they continue with the dome. Under Lincoln’s dome, Confederate flags. One guy with a shirt, six million Jews were not enough. Auschwitz. That’s. What this was, assaulting police, all the rest of that, defecating on the floor. I say this because this brute who was president now wants to give them money for killing or endangering the lives of police officers. They were gonna get a bullet in my effing brain. They use the F word a lot about me throughout the whole thing. They were going to hang the vice president. Gallows for him.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>No doubt, many in the mob hated Pelosi. They came looking for her. They broke into her speaker’s office. A man put his feet up on her desk. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>No doubt, many in the mob hated Pelosi. They came looking for her. They broke into her speaker’s office. A man put his feet up on her desk. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>Where are you Nancy? We’re looking for you! She’s in jail!\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>Where are you Nancy? We’re looking for you! She’s in jail!\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Have you ever, you know, given yourself the permission to think about what would have happened if they had found you?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Have you ever, you know, given yourself the permission to think about what would have happened if they had found you?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, here’s the thing that I thought. I wasn’t really thinking so much about my personal safety. I was thinking about my grandson who was with me. His mother, Alexandra, took the boys to see an historic event, the transfer of power.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, here’s the thing that I thought. I wasn’t really thinking so much about my personal safety. I was thinking about my grandson who was with me. His mother, Alexandra, took the boys to see an historic event, the transfer of power.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But something fundamental had broken.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And this vile creature, the vilest creature to ever crawl the face of the earth. And they said, well, what about Hitler? I said, he wasn’t president of the United States. Insights are an insurrection, sits in his office, and then won’t let the police, the National Guard come and then lies about it the whole time. I called the governor of Virginia. They said they had their troops ready. These people are so idiotic, but let’s put that over all of them. The secretary of the army who had the jurisdiction to. So I have to talk to my boss. That’s the secretary of defense. Haven’t you done that yet? Well, this is hard. It’s complicated. It takes time. I said, they have been attacking the Capitol. Well, I have to go ask my boss and well, you have to have authority at the location. I said there, look, authority is there. You need to be able to send the national guard. But they may, they avoided everything about it because their boss. The Commander-in-Chief, who can say over any of that, was just holding them back. And even some of the Republicans were asking the President to call off those guys, and he still wouldn’t do it. This is, I want to tell you something, this is a demonic figure, this guy who is unfortunately in the White House.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And this vile creature, the vilest creature to ever crawl the face of the earth. And they said, well, what about Hitler? I said, he wasn’t president of the United States. Insights are an insurrection, sits in his office, and then won’t let the police, the National Guard come and then lies about it the whole time. I called the governor of Virginia. They said they had their troops ready. These people are so idiotic, but let’s put that over all of them. The secretary of the army who had the jurisdiction to. So I have to talk to my boss. That’s the secretary of defense. Haven’t you done that yet? Well, this is hard. It’s complicated. It takes time. I said, they have been attacking the Capitol. Well, I have to go ask my boss and well, you have to have authority at the location. I said there, look, authority is there. You need to be able to send the national guard. But they may, they avoided everything about it because their boss. The Commander-in-Chief, who can say over any of that, was just holding them back. And even some of the Republicans were asking the President to call off those guys, and he still wouldn’t do it. This is, I want to tell you something, this is a demonic figure, this guy who is unfortunately in the White House.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I know you’re very religious. Did you pray?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Of course we prayed, prayed for our country. We prayed for those who were under assault.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Of course we prayed, prayed for our country. We prayed for those who were under assault.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A few hours after the attack, authorities confirmed the Capitol had been secured. Congress was going to continue certifying the election results\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A few hours after the attack, authorities confirmed the Capitol had been secured. Congress was going to continue certifying the election results\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I said, you know what, we’re going to the floor. That’s where this assault occurred, that’s where we’re going back to show the world.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I said, you know what, we’re going to the floor. That’s where this assault occurred, that’s where we’re going back to show the world.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the early hours of the morning on January 7th, 2021, the election was certified. In his final days in office, Nancy Pelosi would lead another impeachment against President Trump for inciting the insurrection. The FBI investigated the rioters. There were prosecutions. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the early hours of the morning on January 7th, 2021, the election was certified. In his final days in office, Nancy Pelosi would lead another impeachment against President Trump for inciting the insurrection. The FBI investigated the rioters. There were prosecutions. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>The Arkansas man who was photographed on January 6th with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk was sentenced yesterday. He got four and a half years in prison. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>The Arkansas man who was photographed on January 6th with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk was sentenced yesterday. He got four and a half years in prison. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Biden became president. Working together in the midst of the COVID pandemic, he and Pelosi muscled some big bills through a divided Congress. The Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act. But during her last years as speaker, Pelosi made headlines for another reason. In 2021, at a press conference, a reporter from Business Insider asked Pelosi a question.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Biden became president. Working together in the midst of the COVID pandemic, he and Pelosi muscled some big bills through a divided Congress. The Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act. But during her last years as speaker, Pelosi made headlines for another reason. In 2021, at a press conference, a reporter from Business Insider asked Pelosi a question.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Business Insider Reporter: \u003c/strong>Should members of Congress and their spouses be banned from trading individual stocks while serving in Congress? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Business Insider Reporter: \u003c/strong>Should members of Congress and their spouses be banned from trading individual stocks while serving in Congress? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I don’t know to this second one, we have a responsibility to report in the stock, on the stock but I’m not familiar with that five month review but if people aren’t reporting they should be. Because this is a free market and people, we have a free-market economy, they should be able to participate in that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I don’t know to this second one, we have a responsibility to report in the stock, on the stock but I’m not familiar with that five month review but if people aren’t reporting they should be. Because this is a free market and people, we have a free-market economy, they should be able to participate in that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi was firm in her response. No ban on stock trading. At that moment, she didn’t see the backlash, but it had been coming for years. Back in 2011, Pelosi had just gotten the Affordable Care Act across the finish line. She lost the speakership, but was still leader of House Democrats. Then, the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes published a bombshell investigation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi was firm in her response. No ban on stock trading. At that moment, she didn’t see the backlash, but it had been coming for years. Back in 2011, Pelosi had just gotten the Affordable Care Act across the finish line. She lost the speakership, but was still leader of House Democrats. Then, the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes published a bombshell investigation.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Schweizer: \u003c/strong>There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical. I think it’s highly offensive and wrong.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Schweizer: \u003c/strong>There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical. I think it’s highly offensive and wrong.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Peter Schweizer, the main source in the story. At the time, Schweizer was a fellow at the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank. He’d been criticized as early as 1993 for fabricating sources and events in his book, Friendly Spies. He’d go on to publish Clinton Cash in 2015, a book that Media Matters concluded contained over 20 errors, fabrications, and distortions. On 60 Minutes, Schweiser claimed that members of Congress… Have been trading stocks based on inside information.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Peter Schweizer, the main source in the story. At the time, Schweizer was a fellow at the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank. He’d been criticized as early as 1993 for fabricating sources and events in his book, Friendly Spies. He’d go on to publish Clinton Cash in 2015, a book that Media Matters concluded contained over 20 errors, fabrications, and distortions. On 60 Minutes, Schweiser claimed that members of Congress… Have been trading stocks based on inside information.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Schweizer: \u003c/strong>We know that during the health care debate, people were trading health care stocks. We know during the financial crisis of 2008, they were getting out of the market before the rest of America really knew what was going on.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Schweizer: \u003c/strong>We know that during the health care debate, people were trading health care stocks. We know during the financial crisis of 2008, they were getting out of the market before the rest of America really knew what was going on.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The 60 Minutes story didn’t exclusively focus on Pelosi. They called out other lawmakers, too, including Republican Speaker John Boehner. But the report looked at an incident from 2008. Pelosi’s husband, Paul, had bought shares of stock from Visa, the credit card company. The report called into question whether the family’s investment influenced Pelosi’s decision-making around regulations to protect credit card consumers. To investigate this, the 60 Minutes correspondent, Steve Croft, went to a press conference and asked Pelosi about it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The 60 Minutes story didn’t exclusively focus on Pelosi. They called out other lawmakers, too, including Republican Speaker John Boehner. But the report looked at an incident from 2008. Pelosi’s husband, Paul, had bought shares of stock from Visa, the credit card company. The report called into question whether the family’s investment influenced Pelosi’s decision-making around regulations to protect credit card consumers. To investigate this, the 60 Minutes correspondent, Steve Croft, went to a press conference and asked Pelosi about it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft: \u003c/strong>Madam Leader, I wanted to ask you why you and your husband back in March of 2008 accepted and participated in a very large IPO deal from Visa, at a time there was major legislation affecting the credit card companies making its way through the house, and did you consider that to be a conflict of interest.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft: \u003c/strong>Madam Leader, I wanted to ask you why you and your husband back in March of 2008 accepted and participated in a very large IPO deal from Visa, at a time there was major legislation affecting the credit card companies making its way through the house, and did you consider that to be a conflict of interest.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I don’t know what your point is of your question. Is there some point that you want to make with that? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I don’t know what your point is of your question. Is there some point that you want to make with that? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>This response is classic Pelosi, full-throated denial.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>This response is classic Pelosi, full-throated denial.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It’s not true, and that’s that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It’s not true, and that’s that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I don’t understand what part’s not true.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I don’t understand what part’s not true.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Yes, sir, that I would act upon an investment\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Yes, sir, that I would act upon an investment\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After the piece aired, Pelosi’s office put out a statement. It denied that her decisions about regulating credit card companies were swayed by her husband’s stock purchases. The statement said, quote, It is very troubling that 60 Minutes would base their reporting off of an already discredited conservative author who has made a career out of attacking Democrats. Peter Schweizer was a close ally of Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s top advisors. Schweizer would become editor of the far-right website Breitbart News. It’s true that Democrats had introduced a bill that would regulate credit card swipe fees in the House and that the bill died later that year. But Pelosi said it wasn’t because she was trying to help her husband’s portfolio. By the time the bill made it out of committee, Pelosi said, it was too late to bring the for a vote before the session ended. The Democratic congressman who introduced the bill, John Conyers from Michigan, said even if they’d somehow managed to pass it, President Bush would probably have vetoed it. So Pelosi said they waited until President Obama was in the White House to push card regulations through. In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act included a cap on debit card swipe fees and other protections for credit card consumers. There are lots of moving parts here. It’s hard to say definitively what happened or why. But the accusations were very powerful. They touched a nerve. In 2012, public anger about the issue of stock trading in Congress was mounting. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After the piece aired, Pelosi’s office put out a statement. It denied that her decisions about regulating credit card companies were swayed by her husband’s stock purchases. The statement said, quote, It is very troubling that 60 Minutes would base their reporting off of an already discredited conservative author who has made a career out of attacking Democrats. Peter Schweizer was a close ally of Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s top advisors. Schweizer would become editor of the far-right website Breitbart News. It’s true that Democrats had introduced a bill that would regulate credit card swipe fees in the House and that the bill died later that year. But Pelosi said it wasn’t because she was trying to help her husband’s portfolio. By the time the bill made it out of committee, Pelosi said, it was too late to bring the for a vote before the session ended. The Democratic congressman who introduced the bill, John Conyers from Michigan, said even if they’d somehow managed to pass it, President Bush would probably have vetoed it. So Pelosi said they waited until President Obama was in the White House to push card regulations through. In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act included a cap on debit card swipe fees and other protections for credit card consumers. There are lots of moving parts here. It’s hard to say definitively what happened or why. But the accusations were very powerful. They touched a nerve. In 2012, public anger about the issue of stock trading in Congress was mounting. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft: \u003c/strong>Both the House and the\u003cem> \u003c/em>Senate in a rare display of bipartisanship overwhelmingly passed the Stock Act, which prohibits its members from trading on non-public information gathered during the course of their duties.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft: \u003c/strong>Both the House and the\u003cem> \u003c/em>Senate in a rare display of bipartisanship overwhelmingly passed the Stock Act, which prohibits its members from trading on non-public information gathered during the course of their duties.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Congress passed the Stock Act, stopped trading on congressional knowledge. It’s been said sunlight is the best disinfectant, meaning transparency. The Stock Act required members of Congress to disclose their trades within 30 to 45 days of making them. But the issue didn’t go away. Actually, with the information available to the public, people became more aware of how much money Congress members were making on stock trading. There are even apps you can use to track and literally copy the same stock trades the Pelosi’s and other members of Congress do. When Pelosi came to Congress, she and her husband were already wealthy. Her husband is a finance guy. The family had at least $610,000 worth in stocks. In today’s money, that’s something like 1.8 million. The stock research platform, Quiver Quantitative, estimates that her family currently holds around $135 million in publicly traded assets. In 2021, Pelosi ranked in the top 25 richest people in Congress. Here’s Hillary Brossith, she’s executive director at OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks money and politics. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Congress passed the Stock Act, stopped trading on congressional knowledge. It’s been said sunlight is the best disinfectant, meaning transparency. The Stock Act required members of Congress to disclose their trades within 30 to 45 days of making them. But the issue didn’t go away. Actually, with the information available to the public, people became more aware of how much money Congress members were making on stock trading. There are even apps you can use to track and literally copy the same stock trades the Pelosi’s and other members of Congress do. When Pelosi came to Congress, she and her husband were already wealthy. Her husband is a finance guy. The family had at least $610,000 worth in stocks. In today’s money, that’s something like 1.8 million. The stock research platform, Quiver Quantitative, estimates that her family currently holds around $135 million in publicly traded assets. In 2021, Pelosi ranked in the top 25 richest people in Congress. Here’s Hillary Brossith, she’s executive director at OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks money and politics. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hilary Braseth: \u003c/strong>We often find that some of the highest drivers of traffic to our site are citizens who are curious about the net worth of any given member of Congress. And Nancy Pelosi, I think in many ways, is one of the main profiles that we often see folks looking up, perhaps because she has quite high of a net worth.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hilary Braseth: \u003c/strong>We often find that some of the highest drivers of traffic to our site are citizens who are curious about the net worth of any given member of Congress. And Nancy Pelosi, I think in many ways, is one of the main profiles that we often see folks looking up, perhaps because she has quite high of a net worth.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now, owning stocks can benefit anyone, but the richer you are and the more stocks you own, the more you make when the market goes up. Having private briefings, like members of Congress do, can give them a leg up before the market reacts to news. Business Insider recently published an investigation that found that dozens of Congress members have violated federal conflict of interest laws. Pelosi wasn’t on that list, but many of her colleagues were accused of disclosing after the required disclosure window. And a few were accused of insider trading. It seems obvious that banning members of Congress from trading stocks wouldn’t just stop the practice from happening, but would also remove the appearance of a conflict, but Pelosi opposed it. When Pelosi first ran for her seat back in 1987, her opponents argued that Pelosi’s wealth would put her out of touch with working class people. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now, owning stocks can benefit anyone, but the richer you are and the more stocks you own, the more you make when the market goes up. Having private briefings, like members of Congress do, can give them a leg up before the market reacts to news. Business Insider recently published an investigation that found that dozens of Congress members have violated federal conflict of interest laws. Pelosi wasn’t on that list, but many of her colleagues were accused of disclosing after the required disclosure window. And a few were accused of insider trading. It seems obvious that banning members of Congress from trading stocks wouldn’t just stop the practice from happening, but would also remove the appearance of a conflict, but Pelosi opposed it. When Pelosi first ran for her seat back in 1987, her opponents argued that Pelosi’s wealth would put her out of touch with working class people. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carol Ruth Silver: \u003c/strong>How can she relate to people like me, a single parent, working mother, or somebody else? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carol Ruth Silver: \u003c/strong>How can she relate to people like me, a single parent, working mother, or somebody else? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Fast forward to 2020. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pelosi went on the James Corden show.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Fast forward to 2020. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pelosi went on the James Corden show.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Corden: \u003c/strong>Welcome back, we’re here with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and we’ve asked her to share something from her home for late, late show and tell. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Corden: \u003c/strong>Welcome back, we’re here with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and we’ve asked her to share something from her home for late, late show and tell. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the segment she showed her freezer full of ice cream.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the segment she showed her freezer full of ice cream.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Speaker Pelosi, what have you found? I don’t know what I would have done if ice cream were not invented.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Speaker Pelosi, what have you found? I don’t know what I would have done if ice cream were not invented.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>People were losing their jobs, terrified about the economy. Trump’s reelection campaign seized on an opportunity to punch back at Pelosi. They posted a video on YouTube called Let Them Eat Ice Cream, Nancy Antoinette, a reference to the infamous Queen of France. It featured the James Corden interview with some creative edits. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>People were losing their jobs, terrified about the economy. Trump’s reelection campaign seized on an opportunity to punch back at Pelosi. They posted a video on YouTube called Let Them Eat Ice Cream, Nancy Antoinette, a reference to the infamous Queen of France. It featured the James Corden interview with some creative edits. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video: \u003c/strong>Speaker Pelosi, what are you gonna share with us from your home? Chocolate candy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video: \u003c/strong>Speaker Pelosi, what are you gonna share with us from your home? Chocolate candy. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video: \u003c/strong>Thousands have been forced to wait for hours at food banks all across the country. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video: \u003c/strong>Thousands have been forced to wait for hours at food banks all across the country. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video:\u003c/strong>Oh my chocolate and then we have some other chocolate \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video:\u003c/strong>Oh my chocolate and then we have some other chocolate \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It was a partisan attack, but like her opposition to the congressional stock trading ban, the moment highlighted one of Pelosi’s weaknesses. She can be a little tone deaf to how her own behavior strikes others and how it stokes anger. When we started making this podcast, I knew I wanted to ask Pelosi about congressional stock trading, but I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to bringing it up. I know how she can sometimes go into attack mode when she’s asked about a topic she doesn’t like. She completely rejects accusations that she used knowledge gained as a member of Congress to make favorable stock transactions. She defended her stock trades to me as something everyone does.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It was a partisan attack, but like her opposition to the congressional stock trading ban, the moment highlighted one of Pelosi’s weaknesses. She can be a little tone deaf to how her own behavior strikes others and how it stokes anger. When we started making this podcast, I knew I wanted to ask Pelosi about congressional stock trading, but I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to bringing it up. I know how she can sometimes go into attack mode when she’s asked about a topic she doesn’t like. She completely rejects accusations that she used knowledge gained as a member of Congress to make favorable stock transactions. She defended her stock trades to me as something everyone does.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>My point of view is if family has investments, stock, I’m not talking about big deal. Most people don’t even realize that their 401k is in the stock market. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>My point of view is if family has investments, stock, I’m not talking about big deal. Most people don’t even realize that their 401k is in the stock market. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But there are a lot of people who’ve come to Congress and left with a lot more money than they got there. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But there are a lot of people who’ve come to Congress and left with a lot more money than they got there. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If they’re doing something illegal, then they should be charged with that. They have investigated me personally, politically, economically, all the time. They have never come up with anything. They’ve spent a lot of money and a lot time. They can say I have cloven feet and horns in my head and I’m a devil and the rest of that, but they’ve never come with anything that I did anything wrong in Congress. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If they’re doing something illegal, then they should be charged with that. They have investigated me personally, politically, economically, all the time. They have never come up with anything. They’ve spent a lot of money and a lot time. They can say I have cloven feet and horns in my head and I’m a devil and the rest of that, but they’ve never come with anything that I did anything wrong in Congress. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Josh Hawley was on Fox News saying that, you know, insider trading corruption should be prosecuted.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Josh Hawley was on Fox News saying that, you know, insider trading corruption should be prosecuted.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Not me. Nobody’s ever accused me… \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Not me. Nobody’s ever accused me… \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Well, he was referring to you. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Well, he was referring to you. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2023, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced the Pelosi act preventing elected leaders from owning securities and investments. I tried asking Pelosi why she didn’t try and pass a ban when she was leader. So you don’t feel that not getting that passed is a negative part of your legacy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2023, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced the Pelosi act preventing elected leaders from owning securities and investments. I tried asking Pelosi why she didn’t try and pass a ban when she was leader. So you don’t feel that not getting that passed is a negative part of your legacy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I don’t at all, because the people who, the members didn’t, it’s up to the members to get something passed like that. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I don’t at all, because the people who, the members didn’t, it’s up to the members to get something passed like that. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Yeah, although as leader, you have a lot of say in what the caucus wants to do. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Yeah, although as leader, you have a lot of say in what the caucus wants to do. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t. All you need is a few people to say, we’re not doing this. And some of them were in the leadership. They just thought it was insulting to the members to say you don’t have any values and you don’t have any judgment. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t. All you need is a few people to say, we’re not doing this. And some of them were in the leadership. They just thought it was insulting to the members to say you don’t have any values and you don’t have any judgment. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But now she says she does support a ban on stock trading for members of Congress. So I kept pushing her. What changed? You oppose that for many years and I’m wondering.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But now she says she does support a ban on stock trading for members of Congress. So I kept pushing her. What changed? You oppose that for many years and I’m wondering.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t pose it for many years. I posed it when they suggested it, and then Kalkus said they won it and I supported it. It didn’t come forward because there weren’t the votes to bring it forward.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t pose it for many years. I posed it when they suggested it, and then Kalkus said they won it and I supported it. It didn’t come forward because there weren’t the votes to bring it forward.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>At the top of the episode, I mentioned a stock trading ban passed Congress in July. But Pelosi didn’t vote for it, because she says it exempted the president.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>At the top of the episode, I mentioned a stock trading ban passed Congress in July. But Pelosi didn’t vote for it, because she says it exempted the president.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>It was a terrible bill. And we wanted it to be more comprehensive, including the President of the United States, because they would never get that signed by the President of the United States. But if you look at that bill, it is totally incomplete. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>It was a terrible bill. And we wanted it to be more comprehensive, including the President of the United States, because they would never get that signed by the President of the United States. But if you look at that bill, it is totally incomplete. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now, Pelosi doesn’t like to back down, especially when she feels like these are partisan attacks. But she also knows that appearances matter, and they can undercut trust in elected officials. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now, Pelosi doesn’t like to back down, especially when she feels like these are partisan attacks. But she also knows that appearances matter, and they can undercut trust in elected officials. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We want to do whatever it takes, and that means even this issue, to restore the confidence people have in the system. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We want to do whatever it takes, and that means even this issue, to restore the confidence people have in the system. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Hilary Braseth of Open Secrets again.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Hilary Braseth of Open Secrets again.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hilary Braseth: \u003c/strong>Earlier this year, there was a survey that roughly 75% of the country thinks that there is too much money in politics and does not like it. And so this really presents a quandary that those who get elected into public office tend to benefit from the system as it’s designed and don’t have much incentive to change the system or to create tighter rules around how much money they can raise, whether or not they can trade stocks based on. Knowledge they might be privy to.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hilary Braseth: \u003c/strong>Earlier this year, there was a survey that roughly 75% of the country thinks that there is too much money in politics and does not like it. And so this really presents a quandary that those who get elected into public office tend to benefit from the system as it’s designed and don’t have much incentive to change the system or to create tighter rules around how much money they can raise, whether or not they can trade stocks based on. Knowledge they might be privy to.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Senate Democrats ended up blocking the stock trading ban. They promised future reform, but needless to say, any ban passed now wouldn’t take effect until Pelosi leaves office. It’s been over five years since the violent riot at the Capitol. A lot has changed since then. Back in 2018, to round up votes to regain the gavel, Pelosi agreed to a four-year limit on her second speakership. And in 2023, after Democrats lost the House, she stepped down from leadership. President Trump is back in power after defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Republicans also maintain control of the House. And after he came back into office, President Trump pardoned those who’d been successfully prosecuted for their role in the January 6th attacks. The formal office of the Speaker of the House is historic and spacious, with vaulted ceilings and ornate wooden furniture, outer sitting areas full of comfortable couches and arm chairs. From a window you can see out across the National Mall. But that’s no longer Pelosi’s domain. Her party’s in the minority now, and her current office? It’s nice enough, but decidedly un-grand. It’s relatively cramped, packed with memorabilia. Colorful gavels, gifts from her constituents, chocolate for people who come to visit her, and sitting on a table, a pair of pink boxing gloves with her initials, NP, bedazzled in rhinestones, a gift from her friend Barbara Boxer. They were a little joke, boxing gloves from a boxer, but I think they really fit. No matter the cost, she goes down swinging. She’s not the speaker anymore, but she’s still Pelosi, calling shots behind the scenes, doing her best to shape the future of a Democratic party that’s up for grabs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Senate Democrats ended up blocking the stock trading ban. They promised future reform, but needless to say, any ban passed now wouldn’t take effect until Pelosi leaves office. It’s been over five years since the violent riot at the Capitol. A lot has changed since then. Back in 2018, to round up votes to regain the gavel, Pelosi agreed to a four-year limit on her second speakership. And in 2023, after Democrats lost the House, she stepped down from leadership. President Trump is back in power after defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Republicans also maintain control of the House. And after he came back into office, President Trump pardoned those who’d been successfully prosecuted for their role in the January 6th attacks. The formal office of the Speaker of the House is historic and spacious, with vaulted ceilings and ornate wooden furniture, outer sitting areas full of comfortable couches and arm chairs. From a window you can see out across the National Mall. But that’s no longer Pelosi’s domain. Her party’s in the minority now, and her current office? It’s nice enough, but decidedly un-grand. It’s relatively cramped, packed with memorabilia. Colorful gavels, gifts from her constituents, chocolate for people who come to visit her, and sitting on a table, a pair of pink boxing gloves with her initials, NP, bedazzled in rhinestones, a gift from her friend Barbara Boxer. They were a little joke, boxing gloves from a boxer, but I think they really fit. No matter the cost, she goes down swinging. She’s not the speaker anymore, but she’s still Pelosi, calling shots behind the scenes, doing her best to shape the future of a Democratic party that’s up for grabs.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We’re seeing a lot of turmoil in the Democratic Party in terms of candidates. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I disagree with your terminology. A lot of turmoil in the Democratic Party. There isn’t a lot of turmoil.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s coming up next week on The Speaker. The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. It’s reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound designed by Christopher Beale. Fact checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Sussman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor-in-chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California local.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s coming up next week on The Speaker. The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. It’s reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound designed by Christopher Beale. Fact checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Sussman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor-in-chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California local.\u003c/p>\n"
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#Transcript\">View Full Episode Transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2016,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi was planning on retiring from Congress. But Donald Trump’s presidential victory disrupted her plans, and her legacy. Pelosi’s public battles with the President cemented her status as a liberal warrior – spearheading two impeachments and navigating the January 6th attack. But to some in her caucus, including the young progressives of “The Squad,” Pelosi’s approach wasn’t enough to address a new wave of populism and a growing mistrust of government. And amidst this politically fraught landscape, did Pelosi’s actions around stock trading — or inaction, according to some — add fuel to the fire?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Last episode, we focused on the Affordable Care Act, which then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pushed through Congress. But when you ask people about Pelosi, like our producer Ariella Markowitz did on the streets in DC, something else tends to come up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>What comes to mind when you think of Nancy Pelosi?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vox 1: \u003c/strong>Man, California, stocks, stock trades, that’s funny. Insider stock trading. He defends that, he’s gotten quite wealthy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Vox 2:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>She has manipulated her position and used it to her benefit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It’s something her opponents bring up a lot. Here’s President Trump earlier this year during his State of the Union address. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>Let’s also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information. They stood up for that, I can’t believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she’s here? Doubt it. Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A few months later, the House passed a stock trading ban for members of Congress, and Nancy Pelosi voted against it. Some Democrats had an issue with the bill because it included an unrelated voter ID provision, which many critics say is really a way of suppressing Democratic turnout in elections. And the stock trading bill? It wouldn’t have applied if it were the president. Profiteering by President Trump and his family, including prolific stock trading, are a trademark of his second term. But to many, the name Pelosi triggers allegations of corruption. In her second run as Speaker, Pelosi and President Trump became full-on enemies, locked in public brawls that would define both of their legacies. But Pelosi doesn’t really want to go there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about Trump, so…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I know he’s not your favorite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, it’s not my favorite compared to almost any creature crawling the earth. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Still, this creature has defined her final chapter in unexpected ways. From KQED, this is The Speaker. I’m Scott Shafer. Today, how Pelosi responds to what she and many see as a fundamental threat to democracy. President Trump. And with faith in the Democratic Party and public trust in U.S. Institutions at their lowest in decades, the shadow that hangs over her legacy. Accusations of insider stock trading in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi says she planned on retiring after the 2016 election. She would have been 76 years old, and she was assuming that a Democrat would win. You were really ready to say, that’s it, I’m done.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, I was ready to say it a number of times, but I only thought I would go 10 years. I never thought I’d run for Congress, much less for leadership. And then the members, you have to stay, you have stay, you to stay. And so I did.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She thought her crowning achievement, the Affordable Care Act, her baby, would be protected under a President Hillary Clinton. On November 8, 2016, Pelosi was in Washington with her colleagues, waiting for the returns to come in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>One of my colleagues was the chairman of the party in Philadelphia. And we were getting returns from him saying, they told us if we got over 500,000 in Philadelphia, we would carry Pennsylvania. So one night he’d say, it’s getting closer, but we’re okay, it was getting closer. Then finally he said, you know, the turnout from McCall, but you know just naming the names of some counties is just unprecedented. We’re not gonna be able to offset it. I was like getting kicked in the back by a mule.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>During his first campaign for president, Trump had leaned into people’s cynicism and mistrust of politicians.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>If we win on November 8th, we are going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. We’re draining the swamp.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After he won, President Trump issued a flurry of executive orders and policies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>President Trump’s most recent executive order effectively banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. For at least 90 days. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>Today President Donald Trump is continuing to defend his administration’s policy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>When you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And, in 2017, when white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>There are people, bodies laying on the ground right now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>NAZIS GO HOME! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In response to the violence, Trump said this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>Very fine people on both sides \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the midst of all this, Pelosi and Democrats campaigned hard to defeat Republicans in the 2018 midterms. But economic unrest was starting to influence the Democratic Party’s politics. For years there had been discontent on the left about the 2008 bailout and economic disparity. A movement called Occupy Wall Street kicked off in 2011. The slogan was, we are the 99 percent. In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders had been a grassroots presidential candidate, and he was popular. More than 40 percent of people who voted in the primaries wanted him to be the nominee.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bernie Sanders: \u003c/strong>The reason that we have done so well, the reason I believe we’re going to do so well in the Hampshire and in the other states that follow, the reason is the American people are saying no to a rigged economy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Sanders had run on a message about economic inequality.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bernie Sanders: \u003c/strong>They no longer want to see an economy in which the average American works longer hours for low wages while almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1%.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Some people argue that this energy helped Democrats take back the House in 2018, two years into Trump’s presidency. They’d been out of power since the Tea Party had stormed into Congress almost a decade earlier. That election night, Pelosi took the stage again to the chants of \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Thank you all, thank you all very much, remember this feeling, know the power to win. Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans, it’s about restoring the Constitution’s checks and balances to the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And with that election, a wave of newcomers with bold ideas, including four progressive women who became known as the Squad. Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, Ilhan Omar from Minnesota, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, from New York. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>I think what we’ve seen is that working-class Americans want a clear champion and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>AOC is a democratic socialist, like Bernie Sanders. She defeated Joe Crowley, one of Pelosi’s top deputies in leadership. Many had actually seen Crowley as the person best positioned to become speaker after Pelosi left. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>He didn’t pay enough attention to his district. That, you know, that’s really what it is. It was an election in the summer. So I had very low turnout. I mean, he was predicating his success on how things go in a full election. But AOC ran a great campaign and it was stunning because he’s terrific and respected and he was chair of the caucus, I think, at the time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Needless to say, there was some friction between the new members and the old guard. Before being sworn in, AOC joined a climate protest outside Pelosi’s office. People are holding yellow signs that say Green Jobs for All.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>I just want to let you all know how proud I am of each and every single one of you for putting yourselves and your bodies and everything on the line to make sure that we save our planet, our generation, and our home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi told me she was the wrong target for their protest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>They should not have been in my office as a start because we had done more on climate than anybody.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Once they won back the House, some new, younger members were among those questioning whether Pelosi was the right leader for the House Democrats. But after cutting some deals, Pelosi was easily elected speaker for a second time. The squad cast their votes for her, too. Her swearing in was joyous.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I’d like to call my grandchildren up to be here when I take you, and any other children who want to join them. Come on, kids. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She’d have her work cut out for her. In June of 2019, the House was considering an appropriations bill that would provide funds to process and detain migrants at the border, but also for an emergency food and shelter program, money to help deal with what people were calling a humanitarian crisis. This bill was being debated a year after the Trump administration rolled out and then backed down on a policy that criminally prosecuted all adults crossing the border without papers. The Zero Tolerance Policy meant children were separated from their parents. It was something AOC spoke about at an oversight committee hearing in July 2019. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/strong>And what was worse about this, Mr. Chairman, was the fact that there were American flags hanging all over these facilities, that children being separated from their parents in front of an American flag.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Progressives didn’t want to give more money to the agencies that carried out Trump’s harsh border policies. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders negotiated with them, added additional health and safety standards for migrant children to the bill, but the squad still defected. They were the only Democrats to vote no on the House bill. You described the squad as just four votes. It was. That’s what it was. It was four votes This may sound harsh, but it’s how Pelosi sees things. They were a small obstacle that didn’t affect her vote count. But Pelosi would be challenged again by the progressive wing when she had to give up the House bill with stronger protections for a Senate version. She was disappointed that Senate Democrats hadn’t fought for a better bill, but she decided to compromise and push it through. That caused public outrage from House progressives. AOC took her issues with Pelosi public. She said in an interview with the Washington Post… That she felt the squad had been singled out by Pelosi, implied it was because they were four women of color. AOC’s chief of staff compared centrist Democrats to segregationists on Twitter. He asked why this so-called legislative mastermind, referring to Pelosi, couldn’t get more done on kitchen table issues. By some accounts, Pelosi was furious. Even today, you can hear the annoyance in her voice.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If you want to legislate, don’t be on airwaves criticizing the people whose votes you need. You can be here as a legislator where you need the votes of people for an issue that you may want to advance, or you can be an internet where you’re here to criticize your colleagues and expect them to vote for your bill.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In one closed-door meeting with her Democratic caucus, she told them to bring their grievances to her, not tweet about them to the public. She said at the end of the day, her goal was to help the children. She told them, some of you are here to make a beautiful pate, but we’re making sausage most of the time. Our producer Ariella asked Representative Ilhan Omar, part of the squad, about this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>She was giving speeches about sausages versus pates and all of this. What do you think about that got under her skin? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilhan Omar: \u003c/strong>I think she herself saw herself as a progressive and in some ways might’ve felt insulted that the progressive movement didn’t think of her as being one of them. And she felt like because she was the speaker and she’s the leader for the whole caucus and the whole House, that the decisions that she had to make had to be for the good of the whole.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now as I thought about these showdowns between the squad and the speaker, I remember how Pelosi herself had sort of ignored Congressional norms when she got to Washington. So I asked her how she felt about AOC. I wonder if you saw a little bit of yourself in her.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t at all.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I don’t know. Well, wait until you hear the question. Well, you just asked it, and I said no. I mean, whatBrase I’m thinking of is when you first got there in your very first speech, you talked about AIDS. You were kind of breaking the protocol a little bit. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>She’s operational, make no mistake, some of those squads are not. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Say what you mean by that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Operational is that she knows that she wants to accomplish something. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Operational. This is one of Pelosi’s favorite words. It’s what Congresswoman Sala Burton said about Pelosi before she endorsed her back in 1987. So when Pelosi called AOC operational, this was a mark of respect. She’s learned how to get things done. Here’s the thing, Pelosi comes from progressive San Francisco. She thinks of herself as a liberal, cares about things like ending poverty, providing health care, and believes the government should be a force for good. But she values something else, too, maybe even more than anything else, being effective. It means working within a system she ultimately believes in to get things done, being willing to compromise in the process. But in this era of President Trump… Was being operational enough? Even though she loathed President Trump, Pelosi tried to enter their first meeting with an open mind. Out of respect for the institution.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>This is historic. It’s a meeting between the new president and the leadership of the Congress, bipartisan leadership in the Congress. I’ve been in that meeting many times with President Bush, Obama. It’s historic. And so I’m sitting there thinking, why don’t we begin? Will he quote the Bible? Will he talk about America and founders and what America means to us? And we talk about his family and what this… Means to him, how will he begin this meeting? He leans over on the desk like this, the table, and says, you know, I won the popular vote. It was totally offensive. So I thought, well, that’s not true. That’s not truth. And he said, well I’m not even counting California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The relationship went downhill from there. You may remember some of those moments, like in 2018 when Pelosi walked out of a meeting with Trump in a red coat and Armani sunglasses looking completely relaxed. She put her sunglasses on right in time for the photos. The image went viral.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>The new power suit for women, red coats, sunglasses, nerves of steel. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I had no idea, I just put on my coat and walked out to the press, which is outside. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Or you may remember her dressed in all white, standing behind the president. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>But Nancy Pelosi became the queen of condescending applause. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clapping sarcastically at Trump during his 2019 State of the Union address. She clearly wasn’t intimidated by him. After all, this is the same woman who called Bush incompetent on national TV and refused to apologize for it. To me, it seems like Pelosi was adapting to the moment. She was smart enough to sense that in this era of politics, it’s those viral images that stick with people, not the closed-door legislative rooms Pelosi was used cutting deals in. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>The fact is, people want to see moments. You know, I hear speeches, they want to see moments, what people are happy about is that I did that, that I pointed to him, that I walked out of the office, because it spoke to their, how they felt or believed at the time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She was getting under his skin. To those in the Trump 1.0 administration, Pelosi was an obstructionist. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>Nancy was just so difficult to work with. Again, she may take that as a badge of honor, and I get it, there’s a lot of Republicans who take their unwillingness to compromise with Democrats as a badge of honor. So she’s not unique in that, but she had zero interest in doing anything with Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Mick Mulvaney, who was President Trump’s chief of staff when Pelosi regained the speakership. We talked to him last episode, a Tea Party guy who campaigned for his House seat against the Affordable Care Act and won. He said President Trump respected Pelosi at first.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>He respects strength and that’s certainly what she has. When she was doing what she was doing, she had a margin roughly the same size that Mike Johnson has today in the House. And she was able to corral her party and he respected that. But at the end of the day, she had zero interest in being with the guy and I think the country is worse for it. If they had wanted to sit down and cut some deals, they could have had a tremendous bipartisan deal on infrastructure. I even think they could’ve had a tremendous bipartisan on immigration. But it was fight, fight, fighting the whole time. And it was bitter and poisonous.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>While Republicans felt Pelosi was just an obstacle to getting anything done, many Democrats were calling for Trump’s impeachment. But Pelosi was wary.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>People wanted to impeach him just because he was obnoxious and dyed his hair orange. Everybody had a thing of he’s not really presidential. That’s not a cause for impeachment. You know what I’m saying?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But then, in the summer of 2019, President Trump gave Democrats their opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I’ve said the only person who’s responsible for the impeachment of Donald Trump, not once but twice, is Donald Trump. He gave us no choice.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A whistleblower said that in a phone call, Trump tried to get Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Trump’s rival in the upcoming election, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter. The White House released a transcript of the call, and President Trump tried to deflect to the debunked claim that Joe Biden was linked to a corruption scandal. And let me tell you something, Biden’s son is corrupt, and Biden is corrupt. To Pelosi, this attempt to interfere with the 2020 election was the unconstitutional violation Democrats could not ignore. This would be the grounds for the impeachment case.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>What he did was wrong. Now, different other things you could have included in that we said, you have to keep it simple. What is the thing that crosses the line, not just on its own might be grounds for impeachment, but not on the caliber of the Zelensky letter. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But Pelosi didn’t revel in the impeachment, she actually silenced the applause after the impeachment vote with a stern glance and a hand gesture.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Article 1 is adopted. The question is on adoption of Article 2.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You can count votes. You were probably, I’m guessing, pretty confident the Senate would not convict, right? They needed 67 votes. Why did you think it was important to go ahead and really start a process that you knew ultimately you would not?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We did succeed. We impeached him twice. But you think that we should be guided by what the Senate might do? You think that, we would say, well, the president has committed impregnable offenses of highest magnitude, and we shouldn’t do that because we don’t know what some senators are going to do? No. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been. Our military is completely rebuilt, with its power being unmatched anywhere in the world, and it’s not even close. It was February\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The day before the Senate voted to acquit Trump of both impeachment charges. President Trump was giving his State of the Union speech, and Pelosi went a step further than she’d ever gone before. She was sitting behind Trump, in her house. He’d chosen that night to honor right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who held notoriously homophobic views. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donald Trump: \u003c/strong>And Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire, I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi sat there, lips pursed, looking down at the printed speech, looking away from the balcony where Limbaugh was, and toward her caucus in the audience. As Trump finished his speech, saying the best was yet to come, she stood up, not clapping, but ripping up the president’s printed remarks two or three pages at a time, biting her lip. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I didn’t intend to do that. It just was a manifesto of lies. And I wasn’t just gonna let that stand. I just wasn’t gonna let it stand. As courteous as we are to a guest in our house, when he abuses that courtesy, when he lies there the whole time, gives a medal of freedom to an anti-gay, blah, blah, and our house. Do that at the White House. We don’t agree with your choice, but that’s your choice. You’re the president, but don’t come here and sully the House of Representatives chamber. With your obnoxious behavior. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>Pelosi, at her heart, believes in institutions. She respects the separation of powers, the three branches of government, and the staying power of those institutions. But to me, it seemed like at that moment something changed for her, not even standing with polite, respectful applause for the president as she did behind President George W. Bush for both of his State of the Union addresses when she was speaker, instead A stunning act of defiance on primetime television. Nine months later, Joe Biden won the presidential election. Trump was out. On January 6, 2021, Pelosi, along with Vice President Mike Pence, were overseeing the certification of the election. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We didn’t anticipate violence. We didn’t expect the President of the United States to incite an insurrection.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>We’re starting to get surrounded. They’re taking the north-west scaffolding. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Protesters attack the west side of the Capitol, where presidential inauguration ceremonies are held. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Security came to me and they said we’re taking you out I said I can handle this guy you know we’re ready \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>We are walking over now to the tunnel\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We could see on TV, because when you’re in the chamber, you can’t see. You see on tv what was happening, that they were coming to the Capitol. It’s really hard to explain. This is the citadel of democracy to the world. And these people are coming in, breaking windows, and they go in, and we’re seeing them go into the Capitol with Dixie flags, you know, Confederate flags, under the dome that Lincoln built when he was president. He built it during the Civil War. People said to him, use the steel for the war and the personnel for the War. He said. No, we have to show the world that we are resilient. So they continue with the dome. Under Lincoln’s dome, Confederate flags. One guy with a shirt, six million Jews were not enough. Auschwitz. That’s. What this was, assaulting police, all the rest of that, defecating on the floor. I say this because this brute who was president now wants to give them money for killing or endangering the lives of police officers. They were gonna get a bullet in my effing brain. They use the F word a lot about me throughout the whole thing. They were going to hang the vice president. Gallows for him.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>No doubt, many in the mob hated Pelosi. They came looking for her. They broke into her speaker’s office. A man put his feet up on her desk. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan 6 Archival: \u003c/strong>Where are you Nancy? We’re looking for you! She’s in jail!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Have you ever, you know, given yourself the permission to think about what would have happened if they had found you?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, here’s the thing that I thought. I wasn’t really thinking so much about my personal safety. I was thinking about my grandson who was with me. His mother, Alexandra, took the boys to see an historic event, the transfer of power.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But something fundamental had broken.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And this vile creature, the vilest creature to ever crawl the face of the earth. And they said, well, what about Hitler? I said, he wasn’t president of the United States. Insights are an insurrection, sits in his office, and then won’t let the police, the National Guard come and then lies about it the whole time. I called the governor of Virginia. They said they had their troops ready. These people are so idiotic, but let’s put that over all of them. The secretary of the army who had the jurisdiction to. So I have to talk to my boss. That’s the secretary of defense. Haven’t you done that yet? Well, this is hard. It’s complicated. It takes time. I said, they have been attacking the Capitol. Well, I have to go ask my boss and well, you have to have authority at the location. I said there, look, authority is there. You need to be able to send the national guard. But they may, they avoided everything about it because their boss. The Commander-in-Chief, who can say over any of that, was just holding them back. And even some of the Republicans were asking the President to call off those guys, and he still wouldn’t do it. This is, I want to tell you something, this is a demonic figure, this guy who is unfortunately in the White House.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>I know you’re very religious. Did you pray?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Of course we prayed, prayed for our country. We prayed for those who were under assault.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>A few hours after the attack, authorities confirmed the Capitol had been secured. Congress was going to continue certifying the election results\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I said, you know what, we’re going to the floor. That’s where this assault occurred, that’s where we’re going back to show the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the early hours of the morning on January 7th, 2021, the election was certified. In his final days in office, Nancy Pelosi would lead another impeachment against President Trump for inciting the insurrection. The FBI investigated the rioters. There were prosecutions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News: \u003c/strong>The Arkansas man who was photographed on January 6th with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk was sentenced yesterday. He got four and a half years in prison. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Biden became president. Working together in the midst of the COVID pandemic, he and Pelosi muscled some big bills through a divided Congress. The Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act. But during her last years as speaker, Pelosi made headlines for another reason. In 2021, at a press conference, a reporter from Business Insider asked Pelosi a question.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Business Insider Reporter: \u003c/strong>Should members of Congress and their spouses be banned from trading individual stocks while serving in Congress? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I don’t know to this second one, we have a responsibility to report in the stock, on the stock but I’m not familiar with that five month review but if people aren’t reporting they should be. Because this is a free market and people, we have a free-market economy, they should be able to participate in that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi was firm in her response. No ban on stock trading. At that moment, she didn’t see the backlash, but it had been coming for years. Back in 2011, Pelosi had just gotten the Affordable Care Act across the finish line. She lost the speakership, but was still leader of House Democrats. Then, the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes published a bombshell investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Schweizer: \u003c/strong>There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical. I think it’s highly offensive and wrong.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Peter Schweizer, the main source in the story. At the time, Schweizer was a fellow at the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank. He’d been criticized as early as 1993 for fabricating sources and events in his book, Friendly Spies. He’d go on to publish Clinton Cash in 2015, a book that Media Matters concluded contained over 20 errors, fabrications, and distortions. On 60 Minutes, Schweiser claimed that members of Congress… Have been trading stocks based on inside information.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Schweizer: \u003c/strong>We know that during the health care debate, people were trading health care stocks. We know during the financial crisis of 2008, they were getting out of the market before the rest of America really knew what was going on.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The 60 Minutes story didn’t exclusively focus on Pelosi. They called out other lawmakers, too, including Republican Speaker John Boehner. But the report looked at an incident from 2008. Pelosi’s husband, Paul, had bought shares of stock from Visa, the credit card company. The report called into question whether the family’s investment influenced Pelosi’s decision-making around regulations to protect credit card consumers. To investigate this, the 60 Minutes correspondent, Steve Croft, went to a press conference and asked Pelosi about it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft: \u003c/strong>Madam Leader, I wanted to ask you why you and your husband back in March of 2008 accepted and participated in a very large IPO deal from Visa, at a time there was major legislation affecting the credit card companies making its way through the house, and did you consider that to be a conflict of interest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I don’t know what your point is of your question. Is there some point that you want to make with that? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>This response is classic Pelosi, full-throated denial.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It’s not true, and that’s that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I don’t understand what part’s not true.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Yes, sir, that I would act upon an investment\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After the piece aired, Pelosi’s office put out a statement. It denied that her decisions about regulating credit card companies were swayed by her husband’s stock purchases. The statement said, quote, It is very troubling that 60 Minutes would base their reporting off of an already discredited conservative author who has made a career out of attacking Democrats. Peter Schweizer was a close ally of Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s top advisors. Schweizer would become editor of the far-right website Breitbart News. It’s true that Democrats had introduced a bill that would regulate credit card swipe fees in the House and that the bill died later that year. But Pelosi said it wasn’t because she was trying to help her husband’s portfolio. By the time the bill made it out of committee, Pelosi said, it was too late to bring the for a vote before the session ended. The Democratic congressman who introduced the bill, John Conyers from Michigan, said even if they’d somehow managed to pass it, President Bush would probably have vetoed it. So Pelosi said they waited until President Obama was in the White House to push card regulations through. In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act included a cap on debit card swipe fees and other protections for credit card consumers. There are lots of moving parts here. It’s hard to say definitively what happened or why. But the accusations were very powerful. They touched a nerve. In 2012, public anger about the issue of stock trading in Congress was mounting. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Kroft: \u003c/strong>Both the House and the\u003cem> \u003c/em>Senate in a rare display of bipartisanship overwhelmingly passed the Stock Act, which prohibits its members from trading on non-public information gathered during the course of their duties.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Congress passed the Stock Act, stopped trading on congressional knowledge. It’s been said sunlight is the best disinfectant, meaning transparency. The Stock Act required members of Congress to disclose their trades within 30 to 45 days of making them. But the issue didn’t go away. Actually, with the information available to the public, people became more aware of how much money Congress members were making on stock trading. There are even apps you can use to track and literally copy the same stock trades the Pelosi’s and other members of Congress do. When Pelosi came to Congress, she and her husband were already wealthy. Her husband is a finance guy. The family had at least $610,000 worth in stocks. In today’s money, that’s something like 1.8 million. The stock research platform, Quiver Quantitative, estimates that her family currently holds around $135 million in publicly traded assets. In 2021, Pelosi ranked in the top 25 richest people in Congress. Here’s Hillary Brossith, she’s executive director at OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks money and politics. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hilary Braseth: \u003c/strong>We often find that some of the highest drivers of traffic to our site are citizens who are curious about the net worth of any given member of Congress. And Nancy Pelosi, I think in many ways, is one of the main profiles that we often see folks looking up, perhaps because she has quite high of a net worth.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now, owning stocks can benefit anyone, but the richer you are and the more stocks you own, the more you make when the market goes up. Having private briefings, like members of Congress do, can give them a leg up before the market reacts to news. Business Insider recently published an investigation that found that dozens of Congress members have violated federal conflict of interest laws. Pelosi wasn’t on that list, but many of her colleagues were accused of disclosing after the required disclosure window. And a few were accused of insider trading. It seems obvious that banning members of Congress from trading stocks wouldn’t just stop the practice from happening, but would also remove the appearance of a conflict, but Pelosi opposed it. When Pelosi first ran for her seat back in 1987, her opponents argued that Pelosi’s wealth would put her out of touch with working class people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carol Ruth Silver: \u003c/strong>How can she relate to people like me, a single parent, working mother, or somebody else? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Fast forward to 2020. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pelosi went on the James Corden show.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Corden: \u003c/strong>Welcome back, we’re here with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and we’ve asked her to share something from her home for late, late show and tell. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In the segment she showed her freezer full of ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Speaker Pelosi, what have you found? I don’t know what I would have done if ice cream were not invented.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>People were losing their jobs, terrified about the economy. Trump’s reelection campaign seized on an opportunity to punch back at Pelosi. They posted a video on YouTube called Let Them Eat Ice Cream, Nancy Antoinette, a reference to the infamous Queen of France. It featured the James Corden interview with some creative edits. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video: \u003c/strong>Speaker Pelosi, what are you gonna share with us from your home? Chocolate candy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video: \u003c/strong>Thousands have been forced to wait for hours at food banks all across the country. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Nancy Antoinette Video:\u003c/strong>Oh my chocolate and then we have some other chocolate \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It was a partisan attack, but like her opposition to the congressional stock trading ban, the moment highlighted one of Pelosi’s weaknesses. She can be a little tone deaf to how her own behavior strikes others and how it stokes anger. When we started making this podcast, I knew I wanted to ask Pelosi about congressional stock trading, but I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to bringing it up. I know how she can sometimes go into attack mode when she’s asked about a topic she doesn’t like. She completely rejects accusations that she used knowledge gained as a member of Congress to make favorable stock transactions. She defended her stock trades to me as something everyone does.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>My point of view is if family has investments, stock, I’m not talking about big deal. Most people don’t even realize that their 401k is in the stock market. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But there are a lot of people who’ve come to Congress and left with a lot more money than they got there. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If they’re doing something illegal, then they should be charged with that. They have investigated me personally, politically, economically, all the time. They have never come up with anything. They’ve spent a lot of money and a lot time. They can say I have cloven feet and horns in my head and I’m a devil and the rest of that, but they’ve never come with anything that I did anything wrong in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Josh Hawley was on Fox News saying that, you know, insider trading corruption should be prosecuted.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Not me. Nobody’s ever accused me… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Well, he was referring to you. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2023, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced the Pelosi act preventing elected leaders from owning securities and investments. I tried asking Pelosi why she didn’t try and pass a ban when she was leader. So you don’t feel that not getting that passed is a negative part of your legacy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I don’t at all, because the people who, the members didn’t, it’s up to the members to get something passed like that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Yeah, although as leader, you have a lot of say in what the caucus wants to do. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t. All you need is a few people to say, we’re not doing this. And some of them were in the leadership. They just thought it was insulting to the members to say you don’t have any values and you don’t have any judgment. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But now she says she does support a ban on stock trading for members of Congress. So I kept pushing her. What changed? You oppose that for many years and I’m wondering.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>No, I didn’t pose it for many years. I posed it when they suggested it, and then Kalkus said they won it and I supported it. It didn’t come forward because there weren’t the votes to bring it forward.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>At the top of the episode, I mentioned a stock trading ban passed Congress in July. But Pelosi didn’t vote for it, because she says it exempted the president.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>It was a terrible bill. And we wanted it to be more comprehensive, including the President of the United States, because they would never get that signed by the President of the United States. But if you look at that bill, it is totally incomplete. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Now, Pelosi doesn’t like to back down, especially when she feels like these are partisan attacks. But she also knows that appearances matter, and they can undercut trust in elected officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We want to do whatever it takes, and that means even this issue, to restore the confidence people have in the system. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Hilary Braseth of Open Secrets again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hilary Braseth: \u003c/strong>Earlier this year, there was a survey that roughly 75% of the country thinks that there is too much money in politics and does not like it. And so this really presents a quandary that those who get elected into public office tend to benefit from the system as it’s designed and don’t have much incentive to change the system or to create tighter rules around how much money they can raise, whether or not they can trade stocks based on. Knowledge they might be privy to.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Senate Democrats ended up blocking the stock trading ban. They promised future reform, but needless to say, any ban passed now wouldn’t take effect until Pelosi leaves office. It’s been over five years since the violent riot at the Capitol. A lot has changed since then. Back in 2018, to round up votes to regain the gavel, Pelosi agreed to a four-year limit on her second speakership. And in 2023, after Democrats lost the House, she stepped down from leadership. President Trump is back in power after defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Republicans also maintain control of the House. And after he came back into office, President Trump pardoned those who’d been successfully prosecuted for their role in the January 6th attacks. The formal office of the Speaker of the House is historic and spacious, with vaulted ceilings and ornate wooden furniture, outer sitting areas full of comfortable couches and arm chairs. From a window you can see out across the National Mall. But that’s no longer Pelosi’s domain. Her party’s in the minority now, and her current office? It’s nice enough, but decidedly un-grand. It’s relatively cramped, packed with memorabilia. Colorful gavels, gifts from her constituents, chocolate for people who come to visit her, and sitting on a table, a pair of pink boxing gloves with her initials, NP, bedazzled in rhinestones, a gift from her friend Barbara Boxer. They were a little joke, boxing gloves from a boxer, but I think they really fit. No matter the cost, she goes down swinging. She’s not the speaker anymore, but she’s still Pelosi, calling shots behind the scenes, doing her best to shape the future of a Democratic party that’s up for grabs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We’re seeing a lot of turmoil in the Democratic Party in terms of candidates. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I disagree with your terminology. A lot of turmoil in the Democratic Party. There isn’t a lot of turmoil.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s coming up next week on The Speaker. The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. It’s reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound designed by Christopher Beale. Fact checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Sussman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor-in-chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California local.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#Transcript\">View the full episode transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Long before she became Madam Speaker, Nancy Pelosi was “Little Nancy” D’Alesandro. Raised in Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland, she learned the lessons of power from her larger-than-life parents: “Tommy the Elder,” a Congressman and mayor of Baltimore, and “Big Nancy,” a master political organizer. Decades later, those lessons served her well. In 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, Pelosi wanted to win it back – and win big. But first: she’d have to wage a war against the men standing in her way, including within her own party. \u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>If you had a phrase or a few words to describe Nancy Pelosi, what would they be?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Well, I’ll just tell you what I told President Obama when he was first kind of meeting her. He goes, just tell me a little. I mean, he knew her, but didn’t know her. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Rahm Emanuel. He was President Obama’s chief of staff. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>And I said, Nancy Pelosi is 99% D’Alesandro and 1% Pelosi. And what did that mean to you? She was her father’s daughter. And I says, if you understand that, you understand Nancy Pelosi. Do not forget that you’re dealing with a D’Alesandro.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., was mayor of Baltimore, Maryland from 1947 to 1959. Before that, he served five terms in Congress, representing Maryland’s third district. For Emanuel, that Italian-American political family is the key to understanding Pelosi. Or, as she was known in Baltimore, Little Nancy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott In the Field: \u003c/strong>So we’re in Little Italy in Baltimore on Albermarle Street hoping to get some background on little Nancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>I just keep thinking of hairspray. Good morning Baltimore.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s our producer Ariella Markowitz. To learn more about the neighborhood and Nancy’s family, we met up with one of Nancy Pelosi’s childhood playmates. Sorry to make you come out in the rain.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, that’s all right. I’m only a block away. I live on the corner. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Mary Ann Campanella is 84 years old. She grew up here in Baltimore, little Italy, just across the street from Nancy. She’s lived in the neighborhood all of her life. Her deep voice, strong opinions, quaffed silver hair and warm embrace, they all reminded me of my mother. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, come on. Whoops. Careful. I’m all right, babe. I just got needles in my knees. Old age sucks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Our plan was to check out one of the neighborhood’s best known restaurants, Chipparelli’s. It opened in 1940, that’s the same year little Nancy was born.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Hi, sweetie.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Chiaparelli’s is a classic Italian restaurant. White tablecloths, waitresses that call you babe and honey. I order a cup of Italian wedding soup and lasagna while Marianne holds court in the dining room.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>How you doing today, baby doll? You okay?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It’s the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else’s business.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Hi Mike, what are you doing in here today? It’s his birthday. Oh it’s your birthday? Oh Mike, I didn’t know it was your birthday. Happy birthday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>He’s a neighborhood guy. I knew Maryann all my life. She lives right across the street.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Mike Turocchi. He and Campanella grew up with Nancy D’Alesandro. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>She was queen princess. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>She was just the princess and the father. Tommy was what you call the consummate neighborhood mayor. I mean, he knew everybody. If you had a problem, you went to Tom. I mean my father was.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Senior, Tommy, senior.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>My father was an immigrant. He couldn’t hardly speak English and couldn’t read or write. If he had a problem, go see Mr. Thomas. I think Nancy learned from her father by watching and listening and seeing the way he ran the city and the way people looked up to him and the way he run his daily business.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy’s dad, Mayor Tommy, was the out-front, back-slapping, charismatic politician. But his wife ran the operation behind the scenes. Her name was Annunziata, but everyone called her Big Nancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>Her mother was a very, very powerful person.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Powerful how like what do you?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>Just her demeanor and her presence, the way she carried herself, she was just, she was not a Little Italy mom. Let’s just put it that way. I mean, my mother was a mother of 12 and wore housecoats. Nancy was always dressed to the nines, looked great all the time. It was just the antithesis of what we were.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy had dreams of going to law school, never fulfilled. But her political instincts and raw talent for organizing, campaigning, and bringing order to chaos all rubbed off on the Nancy Pelosi we know today.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>I thought that that’s the product of her environment. Her mother had aspiration for her to be something special, and she was.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>As I sat with these old timers, a picture of Nancy Pelosi came into sharper focus. A child watching her parents run the family business. Big city politics. I’m Scott Shafer from KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. This is The Speaker. Today, how Nancy Pelosi used those lessons to seize power. Baltimore style. Last episode, Nancy Pelosi beat out Harry Britt in a special election for San Francisco’s congressional seat. She told us about that day, in 1987, when she got sworn in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Just the D’Alessandro family is big enough to be a crowd.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy the Elder got to see his daughter take the oath of office, along with the rest of the family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I was born, my father was in Congress. When I in first grade, he became mayor of Baltimore. When I went to college, he was still mayor of Baltimore, so I did grow up in a political atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>How are you? You sound a lot better. How are YOU? That’s all the Italian I know, Mr. Mayor. That’s pretty good. You did pretty good! You get A for effort.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy D’Alesandro Jr. Was a smart-talking politician with a pencil mustache. And in this PBS footage from 1980, he’s retired from politics but still formally dressed in a brown three-piece suit and what looks like a large checkered bowtie. Tommy was one of 13 kids born in Little Italy, Baltimore. In 8th grade, he was kicked out of school by a no-nonsense nun. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>She was a great, she was a saint. She was the two-fisted sister. She used to slug us every time. Literally? Oh yeah. She knocked him less than two times. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Host: \u003c/strong>Did you deserve it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>Sometimes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>As a kid, Tommy was often seen around the neighborhood hustling. He peddled newspapers on the street, sold chewing gum to sex workers. He spoke some Yiddish, would run errands for Jewish neighbors. He was the neighborhood Shabbos Goy. The non-Jew who helped Jews observed the Sabbath. Later, he sold insurance. In his early 20s, he decided to run for local office, the Maryland House of Delegates. He sought the endorsement of the local political bosses. Who would hang out in the smoke-filled Rennert Hotel, playing pinocle and eating oysters. They told Tommy to come back with 500 voter signatures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>So I went around and got a petition. On this petition I had written, we, the undersigned registered Democratic voters of the 3rd Ward, 1st Legislative District recommend for your favorable consideration the candidacy of Tommy D’Alessandro, Jr. For the House of Delegates. He was born and raised in the district, knows the people and their needs, and would be a credit to both city and state if elected, signed by 500 people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>He won that election, his first of many. Two years later, Tommy D’Alessandro married Annunciata Lombardi, a local girl, six years his junior, Big Nancy. They had six boys, including one, Nicholas, who died as a young child. In 1938, Tommy was elected to Congress. Tommy and Big Nancy were dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. They even named one of their sons after the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt D’Alessandro. After bringing six boys into the world, the D’alessandros finally had a girl. Little Nancy D’ Alessandro was born March 26th, 1940, and it made local headlines. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I was born, our whole thing was, we were born devoutly Catholic, proud of our Italian-American heritage, fiercely patriotic, and in our case staunchly democratic. That was our neighborhood, Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For little Nancy, the family business was politics, local politics.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We were taught that we had responsibility to help other people, and politics was one way to do that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And to help other people, they had to win. Winning opened doors, and Tommy relished the victories.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>I carried Little Italy by 69 votes. Palmisano again, I beat him by 2800. At Janetsky again, I beat them by 11,000.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy D’Alessandro Jr. Taught his daughter her most legendary, if underappreciated, skill.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>You have to have the votes, so you have to know how to count.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Before she even graduated from high school, little Nancy got a sound education on the nuts and bolts of running a political operation, including the importance of a good ground game.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I could just remember seeing these people come to the house at night and have their community meetings and you’re going to be responsible for this area, this area this area this area. This is how many votes you need to get. How many do you think you’re gonna get and that was it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The D’Alesandros, they love to win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>And I won, I won again, again, then.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And he won, again and again\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> At a young age, Pelosi learned that power isn’t simply inherited and it certainly isn’t handed over by those who have it. Nope. If you want power, you have to go out and seize it. Once she got to Congress, Nancy Pelosi saw that her fellow Democrats had a big problem. In 1994, the Democrats lost the House for the first time in 40 years. This moment is sometimes called the Republican Revolution. Change was the message, tax cuts, term limits, and smaller government. It was led by a firebrand congressman from Georgia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newt Gingrich: \u003c/strong>This is a contract with Americans for America.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Having won the House for his party, Newt Gingrich became the first Republican speaker in forty years. A thorn in the side of Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newt Gingrich: \u003c/strong>Our proposals, which will come out in May to shrink the federal government, to shrink the bureaucracy, to eliminate some departments, to save the taxpayers’ money, to move to a balanced budget, that’s what the voters want.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>They were in a deep depression.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Anna Eshoo, one of Nancy Pelosi’s closest friends in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>I mean, they were so stunned. Well, they had been the majority in the house for 40 years and then to drop off into nothingness. Oh my God.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Many of the junior Democratic congress members would get together to commiserate over dinner at an Italian restaurant or someone’s house.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>That, the gang. It was a raucous, great group. Nancy always would talk about winning, though, and how to win. She made up her mind that we needed to win\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She had strong opinions about how things should be run, thought that House Democratic leadership did a lousy job managing a banking scandal, and hadn’t done enough to modernize the way they ran campaigns. But to change things, Pelosi would have to overcome a huge obstacle.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>Congress is still a man’s club.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Leon Panetta, once a member of the gang from California, who became Obama’s head of the CIA.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>You’ve got to fight your way, and Nancy was willing to fight her way. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>When Pelosi got to Congress, women made up about 5% of the House. Anna Eshoo relayed this one story. She wasn’t there at the time, but she heard about it later. Nancy and some other Congresswomen were listening to the men talk about childbirth. Apparently the men were complaining about how hard childbirth was. For them\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>and she tries to get into the conversation. Now she had five babies in six years, you know? She was just so shocked that what the women were trying to say, the guys were. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Dominating.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>She would do an awful lot of listening, and she would listen, but then she would have something to say that was a lot more at the point of what we were concerned about. It wasn’t just complaining, it was like, what are we going to do about it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi was getting tired of listening. She wanted to get stuff done. And as election after election passed, she saw something that the men in charge wouldn’t acknowledge. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>94, 96, 98, I was like, there’s no plan to win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Leadership thought that the Republican revolution was just a blip, that things would go back to the way they were, with Democrats in charge. It was just matter of time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It was more of an attitude thing, like the pendulum will swing, but I didn’t see really a decision to have it be a wrecking ball, not a pendulum, a wreckin’ ball. You decide to win, and then you make every decision in favor of winning. Quite frankly, I’m really tired of losing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She came into Congress wanting to make life better, for people who are often forgotten\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>This is not for the faint of heart. This is rough. But if you know why you’re doing it, that makes everything okay. My why was one in five children in America goes to sleep hungry at night. One in five Children in America, it lives in poverty. That’s my why, is to ask, go there for the children, for the Children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We don’t know exactly when Nancy Pelosi decided to run for leadership. When I asked Pelosi why she wanted to be leader, her line is, other people wanted me to run. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I got here, after a few years, members came to me and said, you should run for leadership. In fact, you should for speaker. I said, well, I absolutely positively would not do that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Barbara Boxer, the former senator from California, remembers a different Pelosi. They would commute back and forth from D.C. Together, chatting the whole time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Boxer: \u003c/strong>We could just yak yak about everything. One of those days on the plane, we were talking about, what is your dream in politics? What do you really want to do? And she asked me that, and I said, I want to be U.S. Senator. This is when I was in the House, which was a pipe dream, trust me. Now, I’m telling you, Nancy says, that never happened. So maybe I dreamed it. And she said, I want be Speaker of the House.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You had to have some chutzpah at that point in her career to say, I wanna be speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Boxer: \u003c/strong>Chutzpah doesn’t begin to describe it. It was impossible.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Walking in the street, I ain’t foam with these sidewalks. Okay. They’ll stop for us. Believe me, they will.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After eating at Chiparelli’s in Baltimore with Nancy’s childhood friend, Mary Ann, we jaywalk across the street to Nancy’s Childhood Home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>The D’Alesandro Mansion. This is where young Nancy was born, right here in this home. You’ll see the plaques. Mercy Little Italy Health Center in memory of Nancy and Tommy D’Alesandro Jr.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big house. It’s a three-story brick row house on the corner of Albert Marl and Fawn streets.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, and good bricklayer. The Talons are noted for that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Back in the 40s, when Tommy D’Alesandro Jr. Was mayor, the House was essentially a political headquarters, often buzzing with activity. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Her father’s office was here when he was mayor, so he was right in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But everybody knew that if they couldn’t reach the mayor, next best was talk to his political partner and wife, Big Nancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>My mom was spectacular. If she were living now, I don’t know if she might be president of the United States. She was so capable. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy was glamorous and smart. She loved betting on horses at the local track. She even invented a beauty product, had a patent registered for a facial steaming device. It was called Beautifier Vaporizer for treatment of the skin. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>And basically, it’s just boiling water, but it looks pretty dramatic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Susan Page. She wrote a biography about Pelosi.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>Her mother kept what was called the favor file, which was basically a recording of the favors that constituents would come in and want to get from the mayor, whether it was better housing or help with a kid who had gotten in trouble with the law or whatever. And she would help figure out how they might be able to help this person and also keep a record so that they could go back to them when the next campaign came around and they needed some election help. And who was sitting on her right side during these sessions when people would file through their home looking for favors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Little Nancy, that’s who. She would take handwritten notes, later typed onto index cards and filed away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>It is perfect training for being a congressional leader where your members have favors they need done and you keep track of them so that you can cash them in when you need them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I was a girl, I could hear what my mother would say when somebody would come to the door if they wanted a place to live in the projects, a bed in a city hospital, somebody going to jail or getting out of jail or whatever it happened to be.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy would help her neighbors with all kinds of problems, but they were also her husband’s constituents. So when election time came around, she’d open up the favor file to, in a sense, balance the books. She’d send women volunteers out to collect the votes. It’s been a key part of machine politics since the beginning. The ground game.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Women have always been the strength of the Democratic Party because you have to own the ground.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Speakers of the House wield enormous power. If the President and Vice President die, the Speaker becomes President. They dictate the agenda, appoint members to committees. In effect, Speakers decide which legislation lives or dies, or gets amended, and how. But Speaker of the house isn’t a job that just falls into your lap. Here’s what you need to do. Build alliances. Show that you have a vision. Raise funds for the party. So they’ll elect you to party leadership. That’s your stepping stone to speakership. One of the highest positions is whip. The term whip comes from England. The whipper in was the assistant to the huntsman, the person who keeps the hounds in line. The job requires deep trust as you’re herding votes. Hounds have to know you’ll use the whip. Early on, Pelosi learned a hard lesson about counting on the support of colleagues. She remembers thinking she had convinced a senior member of Congress to support her campaign to join the powerful Appropriations Committee, a coveted position. But when the time came, he voted for her opponent, so she cornered him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>You said that when even knowing, no, even knowing on the race, I’m for you. He said, yeah, that’s what I said. Well, knowing who’s in the race I’m, for you, so I say to people if they say you’d be so great, that’s a no. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi started studying what motivated her members. What were the carrots? And what were the sticks? Here’s Anna Eshoo again, Pelosi’s close friend in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>She came to know members better than they knew themselves. I always thought that. I thought, oh, that poor deer over there. He doesn’t know that she knows him backward and forward. She had her own internal study of people. She understood them. She made it her business to know them, to know their families, to know their children, to their districts. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Whip is an internal party position, so there’s no regular election schedule. You have to wait for someone to retire or decide to run for Senate or go back to state politics. Pelosi announced her bid ahead of time anyway to send a signal.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Said, you know, you’re breaking into the line. I said, what are we talking about? Because they had it. You’re gonna be next. You’ll be with, and you’ll move up to leader, and you will be with. And they had all guys. They had all the guys. And I said no, we’ve been waiting over 200 years, and that’s it. That’s it, and I know I can win. I’m not asking anybody to take a risk. I know, I’m gonna win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clearly Pelosi had counted the votes, but she still had one big obstacle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Well, I was disappointed that she was going to run and not support me. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Steny Hoyer, a longtime Democratic congressman from Maryland. A reporter describes Steny as the textbook politician, gregarious, smooth, and a moderate to the core. Hoyer knew Nancy well. He’d also grown up in Maryland. Actually, they’d worked together back in the 60s when Pelosi was a receptionist for a Maryland senator. When Pelosi joined Congress two decades later, Hoyer was…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Tickled Pink to see her, welcomed her with open arms. She was a great addition to the Congress.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We might say today they were frenemies, friends, but also rivals, eyeing the same position and leadership. Based on those wait your turn rules, he was expected to become whip when the job opened up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And then when I ran, they were like, well, who said she could run? Poor babies. When you think I’m waiting for you, lost all these elections that say I can run. And secondly, they said, because I had a lot of support from the women, they said why don’t you all write on a piece of paper the things you would like to see us do and we’ll do them for you. This is in this century. In this century! I’m not talking about 1958, I’m talking about in this century.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But Pelosi knew how to deal with tough old politicians. Her dad had been one. She knew she’d have to get some of them on her side to win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Jack Murtha was a member from Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Anna Eshoo again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Jack was the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to the Congress. He really looked like he was out of central casting, beautiful gray hair, impeccably dressed, his collars, his ties, very Irish and very serious about his work. And his work was all about the military. He sat on the floor in the very last seat. If you’re looking at the front of the chamber, the far left corner, it’s dark there. It’s so far away from everything else, but that’s where Jack sat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi kept a small statue of a coal miner on her desk. It was a gift from her father, who’d gotten it from a former West Virginia Congressman.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>So Jack Murtha walks down the hall, comes in my office, and he sees that, and was like, oh my gosh. So then we became really good friends. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Jack Murtha was a representative from coal country, so that made an impression on him. She may have represented San Francisco, but he saw the Baltimore in her. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>We need her in the leadership. And that was, you know, I mean, the most members weren’t noticing how the relationship grew and deepened. So they were shocked. Jack, Murtha supporting Nancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Murtha would actually go on to lead her campaign for Whip.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>To Hoyer’s disappointment. I was surprised because Jack Murtha, I thought, had indicated to me that he would be helpful to me. That did not turn out to be the case. Pelosi was coming for Hoyer spot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I maybe thought it was his turn, but I didn’t know what dues he paid. I mean, that is to say, I paid all the dues in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2000, Democrats were still hoping they could win back the House. They needed to flip around seven seats. Pelosi said she could pick up four seats in California, the party would have to do the rest. She kept her word, four more notes for the favor file. She remembers assuming they’d won back the majority.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>So I’m on my way to a press conference to meet the press. My staff is like holding me back like this on my coat. They said, wait a minute, we did not win the house. I said, how could they? They needed seven to win the House. They lost every other place. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She couldn’t stand it anymore. Even after delivering what she promised, they still lost. And she was still on the outside looking in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I was doing all this stuff, resources and all that stuff.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Fundraising.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>But I had never, until I became Speaker of the House, been in the Democratic Speaker’s office. Never. Until I walked into my own office. They never invited me to anything, nothing, because they had it all lined up for themselves.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2001, the sitting whip decided not to run for re-election. It was time for Democrats to elect a new whip. To start locking down votes, Nancy Pelosi first turned to her own California delegation. Several of them actually owed their seat to her. She had a running start. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Maryland is a small state and California is a huge state, so it made it very difficult. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Steny Hoyer again. Pelosi also raised more than twice as much money for candidates as Hoyer. Showing that you can raise money is important. It helps solidify your role as a strong party leader and it gives you leverage. Some members who didn’t support Pelosi, well, she never forgot. Washington legend has it she punished the longtime congressman from Michigan, John Dingell, helping ensure he was deposed from his high power committee chairmanship. Because he didn’t support her for whip. And even Steny Hoyer had to appreciate how meticulous she was. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Nancy’s a very, very hard worker. She’s very tenacious. She’s a thorough, she’s very smart. She is a wonderful counter of votes. When it was time for the vote, Pelosi was confident.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I tried to tell them that I’m going to win this. But they, to the end, which I was on the floor, I could hear them, you gotta be for standing tomorrow. This is a one vote race for babies. They didn’t know how to count.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi predicted she’d get 120 votes, she got 118. Steny Hoyer got 95. So, on October 10th, 2001, just a few weeks after 9-11,\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>And a woman has broken new ground in the nation’s capital, California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi becomes Democratic whip, the number two House leader right behind the Democratic leader, Richard Gephardt, the highest ranking woman in Congress ever. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Given 9/11, Pelosi’s groundbreaking election was easy to miss. But it was unmistakable. Pelosi was on her way to becoming Speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>What’s remarkable about the campaign that she ran was that she didn’t run it like a girl.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Biographer Susan Page again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>You know, a lot of the women in Congress had accepted kind of secondary roles in leadership, like being the caucus secretary, or doing what it was the men were willing to let them to do because no woman had been in a real leadership position before, in a really leadership position that had power. And she just thought that was nonsense and plowed ahead. And I think to the dismay of these men who were in charge, she won.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If there were not many more women in Congress, I might not have won. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Hmm, speaker image.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>A speaker, you know, or a whip at that time. Because whip was the first step. They knew, boom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You just heard about Nancy Pelosi’s secret sauce, her recipe for taking over Congress. Her father taught her to bring the wrecking ball. Her mother taught her to bring a carrot with the favor file. Pelosi wasn’t whipped for long. In 2002, the party leader position opened up and she took it. Pelosi was now head of Democrats. But one thing standing in her way to being speaker, Republicans losing again wasn’t an option. It would be total war. Pelosi went on the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes, right before the 2006 election. Dressed in bright red, she sat across from correspondent Leslie Stahl.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leslie Stahl: \u003c/strong>You have called your Republican colleagues, these are quotes, immoral, corrupt, you say they’re running a criminal enterprise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi – 60 Minutes: \u003c/strong>Well, actually, when I called them those names, I was being gentle. There are much worse things I could have said about them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The segment is titled, Two Heartbeats Away. Message, if the Democrats win, this woman will likely become the next Speaker of the House. It was a reference to the presidential line of succession. Speaker of House is third in line after the President and Vice President. For many Americans, this was probably the first real glimpse they got of Pelosi. She lays into the President, George W. Bush, often with a radiant smile. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi – 60 Minutes: \u003c/strong>This isn’t personal. He’s incompetent. Well, I think he is. That’s personal. Well, then I’m sorry. That’s his problem. I have very thick skin. I don’t care what they say about me. This election is about them. This is a referendum on them. Making them lame ducks is good enough for me. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Of course, Republicans fought tooth and nail to avoid becoming lame ducks. They flooded the airwaves with ads, warning that unless Republicans prevailed, the top leader in Congress would be an ultra-liberal from wacky San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Ad: \u003c/strong>You’ll reward illegal aliens with welfare, food stamps, and free education. And I had the privilege because of a woman being very defined by the Republicans coming after me. Hundreds of thousands of ads. Imagine how much money that cost.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>At this time, the US was over three years into the war in Iraq. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Pelosi had access to information about the 9-11 attacks. She voted for intervention in Afghanistan as retaliation for the attacks, but she never supported Bush starting the Iraq War, voting against it with 132 of her colleagues. As the war intensified, casualties mounting, the search for weapons of mass destruction coming up empty. Pelosi kept her eyes on the prize, winning back the House in the 2006 midterm elections.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Nancy is, and I say this as a compliment, she is comfortable with power and exercising it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Rahm Emanuel came in to help. He’s somewhat intense, known for shouting at donors for more money, stabbing a steak knife into the table to make a point.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Understands winning gives you that. If you win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>You get to set the table.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>To win back the House, Democrats had to pick up 15 seats. So Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid launched their answer to Newt Gingrich’s contract with America. Six for 06, a plan that promised more funding for national security, a minimum wage hike, and affordable healthcare. Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel was busy recruiting candidates he thought could win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>We’re gonna find people that open the door to a group of voters because we gotta swing a district. You can’t win it on Democratic voters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And they started bringing in money. Federal fundraising tallies show that, compared to the previous election cycle, Democrats raised about 50% more for House candidates in 2006. Republicans still outspent Democrats, but Pelosi and Emanuel put a dent in their financial advantage. Some Democrats, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie, others, criticize taking money from corporations and PACs. How do you, and how does Nancy Pelosi, how do you see that criticism?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>You don’t tie one hand behind your back, okay? We can’t just put people on the field and then leave them out there to self-defend themselves. I hate what the court did. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>He’s referring to the Supreme Court case Citizens United decided in 2010. It reversed older restrictions on campaign spending and allowed corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>But that’s the world we live in. Again, she’s comfortable with power. Nancy exists in the arena.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Whichever party controls the White House usually loses seats in Congress in the midterms. But Pelosi was never content to just let the pendulum swing or it naturally would. Winning is never inevitable.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It isn’t that the tide goes in and out. That’s probably what they thought in the nineties that the Tide went out and now come back in. So I’m not really wedded to that concept. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For the first time in 12 years, Democrats seized back control of the House. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>Washington turned upside down.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – President Bush: \u003c/strong>It was a thumping.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>Power switch in the House. Democrats now firmly in control there. The Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, set to become the first woman Speaker of the House in American history. Pelosi was finally on top.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>On January 4, 2007, holding one grandchild and surrounded by others, Pelosi was officially elected speaker. Republican leader John Boehner graciously handed Pelosi the gavel and history\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Mr. Speaker, I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship. Before we move forward, because there’s so many children here and so many of them asked me if they could touch the gavel, 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. There it is.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We’re here for the children, we’re here \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For the children would be Nancy Pelosi’s mantra.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I know that sometimes I have to take a punch and sometimes I have to throw a punch for the children, for the children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The stars had finally aligned for Baltimore’s favorite daughter. Both her parents lived long enough to see Pelosi elected to Congress. They died before she became the most powerful woman in U.S. Politics ever. But their influence was undeniable. Little Nancy D’Alessandro had become the speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, the power of the speaker is awesome. There’s nothing to compare to that. It’s the second highest president, vice president. Let me feel your pulse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats had seized power, but she’d soon find out the difference between winning \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We’ll climb the fence. If that doesn’t work, we’ll pole vault in. If that does not work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re not letting anything stand in our way. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Did you believe it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Yes, I was determined we were going to get this done.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And govern it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zeke Emanuel: \u003c/strong>The system is falling apart, costs are going up, people are getting pissed off. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>If you think your healthcare is great now, just wait until the government runs it for you. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>A lot going on. Thank you. You’re giving me PTSD right now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s coming up next on The speaker. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. It’s reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound design by Christopher Beale. Fat-checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Susman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor in chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California, local.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Long before she became Madam Speaker, Nancy Pelosi was “Little Nancy” D’Alesandro. Raised in Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland, she learned the lessons of power from her larger-than-life parents: “Tommy the Elder,” a Congressman and mayor of Baltimore, and “Big Nancy,” a master political organizer. Decades later, those lessons served her well. In 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, Pelosi wanted to win it back – and win big. But first: she’d have to wage a war against the men standing in her way, including within her own party. \u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Long before she became Madam Speaker, Nancy Pelosi was “Little Nancy” D’Alesandro. Raised in Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland, she learned the lessons of power from her larger-than-life parents: “Tommy the Elder,” a Congressman and mayor of Baltimore, and “Big Nancy,” a master political organizer. Decades later, those lessons served her well. In 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, Pelosi wanted to win it back – and win big. But first: she’d have to wage a war against the men standing in her way, including within her own party. \u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Well, I’ll just tell you what I told President Obama when he was first kind of meeting her. He goes, just tell me a little. I mean, he knew her, but didn’t know her. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>And I said, Nancy Pelosi is 99% D’Alesandro and 1% Pelosi. And what did that mean to you? She was her father’s daughter. And I says, if you understand that, you understand Nancy Pelosi. Do not forget that you’re dealing with a D’Alesandro.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>And I said, Nancy Pelosi is 99% D’Alesandro and 1% Pelosi. And what did that mean to you? She was her father’s daughter. And I says, if you understand that, you understand Nancy Pelosi. Do not forget that you’re dealing with a D’Alesandro.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., was mayor of Baltimore, Maryland from 1947 to 1959. Before that, he served five terms in Congress, representing Maryland’s third district. For Emanuel, that Italian-American political family is the key to understanding Pelosi. Or, as she was known in Baltimore, Little Nancy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., was mayor of Baltimore, Maryland from 1947 to 1959. Before that, he served five terms in Congress, representing Maryland’s third district. For Emanuel, that Italian-American political family is the key to understanding Pelosi. Or, as she was known in Baltimore, Little Nancy. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott In the Field: \u003c/strong>So we’re in Little Italy in Baltimore on Albermarle Street hoping to get some background on little Nancy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott In the Field: \u003c/strong>So we’re in Little Italy in Baltimore on Albermarle Street hoping to get some background on little Nancy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>I just keep thinking of hairspray. Good morning Baltimore.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>I just keep thinking of hairspray. Good morning Baltimore.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s our producer Ariella Markowitz. To learn more about the neighborhood and Nancy’s family, we met up with one of Nancy Pelosi’s childhood playmates. Sorry to make you come out in the rain.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s our producer Ariella Markowitz. To learn more about the neighborhood and Nancy’s family, we met up with one of Nancy Pelosi’s childhood playmates. Sorry to make you come out in the rain.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, that’s all right. I’m only a block away. I live on the corner. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, that’s all right. I’m only a block away. I live on the corner. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Mary Ann Campanella is 84 years old. She grew up here in Baltimore, little Italy, just across the street from Nancy. She’s lived in the neighborhood all of her life. Her deep voice, strong opinions, quaffed silver hair and warm embrace, they all reminded me of my mother. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Mary Ann Campanella is 84 years old. She grew up here in Baltimore, little Italy, just across the street from Nancy. She’s lived in the neighborhood all of her life. Her deep voice, strong opinions, quaffed silver hair and warm embrace, they all reminded me of my mother. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, come on. Whoops. Careful. I’m all right, babe. I just got needles in my knees. Old age sucks.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, come on. Whoops. Careful. I’m all right, babe. I just got needles in my knees. Old age sucks.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Our plan was to check out one of the neighborhood’s best known restaurants, Chipparelli’s. It opened in 1940, that’s the same year little Nancy was born.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Our plan was to check out one of the neighborhood’s best known restaurants, Chipparelli’s. It opened in 1940, that’s the same year little Nancy was born.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Hi, sweetie.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Hi, sweetie.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Chiaparelli’s is a classic Italian restaurant. White tablecloths, waitresses that call you babe and honey. I order a cup of Italian wedding soup and lasagna while Marianne holds court in the dining room.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Chiaparelli’s is a classic Italian restaurant. White tablecloths, waitresses that call you babe and honey. I order a cup of Italian wedding soup and lasagna while Marianne holds court in the dining room.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>How you doing today, baby doll? You okay?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>How you doing today, baby doll? You okay?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It’s the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else’s business.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Hi Mike, what are you doing in here today? It’s his birthday. Oh it’s your birthday? Oh Mike, I didn’t know it was your birthday. Happy birthday.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Hi Mike, what are you doing in here today? It’s his birthday. Oh it’s your birthday? Oh Mike, I didn’t know it was your birthday. Happy birthday.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>He’s a neighborhood guy. I knew Maryann all my life. She lives right across the street.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Mike Turocchi. He and Campanella grew up with Nancy D’Alesandro. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Mike Turocchi. He and Campanella grew up with Nancy D’Alesandro. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>She was queen princess. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>She was queen princess. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>She was just the princess and the father. Tommy was what you call the consummate neighborhood mayor. I mean, he knew everybody. If you had a problem, you went to Tom. I mean my father was.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>She was just the princess and the father. Tommy was what you call the consummate neighborhood mayor. I mean, he knew everybody. If you had a problem, you went to Tom. I mean my father was.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Senior, Tommy, senior.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Senior, Tommy, senior.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>My father was an immigrant. He couldn’t hardly speak English and couldn’t read or write. If he had a problem, go see Mr. Thomas. I think Nancy learned from her father by watching and listening and seeing the way he ran the city and the way people looked up to him and the way he run his daily business.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>My father was an immigrant. He couldn’t hardly speak English and couldn’t read or write. If he had a problem, go see Mr. Thomas. I think Nancy learned from her father by watching and listening and seeing the way he ran the city and the way people looked up to him and the way he run his daily business.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy’s dad, Mayor Tommy, was the out-front, back-slapping, charismatic politician. But his wife ran the operation behind the scenes. Her name was Annunziata, but everyone called her Big Nancy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy’s dad, Mayor Tommy, was the out-front, back-slapping, charismatic politician. But his wife ran the operation behind the scenes. Her name was Annunziata, but everyone called her Big Nancy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>Her mother was a very, very powerful person.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>Her mother was a very, very powerful person.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Powerful how like what do you?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Powerful how like what do you?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>Just her demeanor and her presence, the way she carried herself, she was just, she was not a Little Italy mom. Let’s just put it that way. I mean, my mother was a mother of 12 and wore housecoats. Nancy was always dressed to the nines, looked great all the time. It was just the antithesis of what we were.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>Just her demeanor and her presence, the way she carried herself, she was just, she was not a Little Italy mom. Let’s just put it that way. I mean, my mother was a mother of 12 and wore housecoats. Nancy was always dressed to the nines, looked great all the time. It was just the antithesis of what we were.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy had dreams of going to law school, never fulfilled. But her political instincts and raw talent for organizing, campaigning, and bringing order to chaos all rubbed off on the Nancy Pelosi we know today.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy had dreams of going to law school, never fulfilled. But her political instincts and raw talent for organizing, campaigning, and bringing order to chaos all rubbed off on the Nancy Pelosi we know today.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>I thought that that’s the product of her environment. Her mother had aspiration for her to be something special, and she was.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>I thought that that’s the product of her environment. Her mother had aspiration for her to be something special, and she was.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>As I sat with these old timers, a picture of Nancy Pelosi came into sharper focus. A child watching her parents run the family business. Big city politics. I’m Scott Shafer from KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. This is The Speaker. Today, how Nancy Pelosi used those lessons to seize power. Baltimore style. Last episode, Nancy Pelosi beat out Harry Britt in a special election for San Francisco’s congressional seat. She told us about that day, in 1987, when she got sworn in.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>As I sat with these old timers, a picture of Nancy Pelosi came into sharper focus. A child watching her parents run the family business. Big city politics. I’m Scott Shafer from KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. This is The Speaker. Today, how Nancy Pelosi used those lessons to seize power. Baltimore style. Last episode, Nancy Pelosi beat out Harry Britt in a special election for San Francisco’s congressional seat. She told us about that day, in 1987, when she got sworn in.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Just the D’Alessandro family is big enough to be a crowd.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Just the D’Alessandro family is big enough to be a crowd.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy the Elder got to see his daughter take the oath of office, along with the rest of the family.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy the Elder got to see his daughter take the oath of office, along with the rest of the family.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I was born, my father was in Congress. When I in first grade, he became mayor of Baltimore. When I went to college, he was still mayor of Baltimore, so I did grow up in a political atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I was born, my father was in Congress. When I in first grade, he became mayor of Baltimore. When I went to college, he was still mayor of Baltimore, so I did grow up in a political atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>How are you? You sound a lot better. How are YOU? That’s all the Italian I know, Mr. Mayor. That’s pretty good. You did pretty good! You get A for effort.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>How are you? You sound a lot better. How are YOU? That’s all the Italian I know, Mr. Mayor. That’s pretty good. You did pretty good! You get A for effort.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy D’Alesandro Jr. Was a smart-talking politician with a pencil mustache. And in this PBS footage from 1980, he’s retired from politics but still formally dressed in a brown three-piece suit and what looks like a large checkered bowtie. Tommy was one of 13 kids born in Little Italy, Baltimore. In 8th grade, he was kicked out of school by a no-nonsense nun. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy D’Alesandro Jr. Was a smart-talking politician with a pencil mustache. And in this PBS footage from 1980, he’s retired from politics but still formally dressed in a brown three-piece suit and what looks like a large checkered bowtie. Tommy was one of 13 kids born in Little Italy, Baltimore. In 8th grade, he was kicked out of school by a no-nonsense nun. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>She was a great, she was a saint. She was the two-fisted sister. She used to slug us every time. Literally? Oh yeah. She knocked him less than two times. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>She was a great, she was a saint. She was the two-fisted sister. She used to slug us every time. Literally? Oh yeah. She knocked him less than two times. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Host: \u003c/strong>Did you deserve it?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Host: \u003c/strong>Did you deserve it?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>Sometimes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>Sometimes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>As a kid, Tommy was often seen around the neighborhood hustling. He peddled newspapers on the street, sold chewing gum to sex workers. He spoke some Yiddish, would run errands for Jewish neighbors. He was the neighborhood Shabbos Goy. The non-Jew who helped Jews observed the Sabbath. Later, he sold insurance. In his early 20s, he decided to run for local office, the Maryland House of Delegates. He sought the endorsement of the local political bosses. Who would hang out in the smoke-filled Rennert Hotel, playing pinocle and eating oysters. They told Tommy to come back with 500 voter signatures.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>As a kid, Tommy was often seen around the neighborhood hustling. He peddled newspapers on the street, sold chewing gum to sex workers. He spoke some Yiddish, would run errands for Jewish neighbors. He was the neighborhood Shabbos Goy. The non-Jew who helped Jews observed the Sabbath. Later, he sold insurance. In his early 20s, he decided to run for local office, the Maryland House of Delegates. He sought the endorsement of the local political bosses. Who would hang out in the smoke-filled Rennert Hotel, playing pinocle and eating oysters. They told Tommy to come back with 500 voter signatures.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>So I went around and got a petition. On this petition I had written, we, the undersigned registered Democratic voters of the 3rd Ward, 1st Legislative District recommend for your favorable consideration the candidacy of Tommy D’Alessandro, Jr. For the House of Delegates. He was born and raised in the district, knows the people and their needs, and would be a credit to both city and state if elected, signed by 500 people. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>So I went around and got a petition. On this petition I had written, we, the undersigned registered Democratic voters of the 3rd Ward, 1st Legislative District recommend for your favorable consideration the candidacy of Tommy D’Alessandro, Jr. For the House of Delegates. He was born and raised in the district, knows the people and their needs, and would be a credit to both city and state if elected, signed by 500 people. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>He won that election, his first of many. Two years later, Tommy D’Alessandro married Annunciata Lombardi, a local girl, six years his junior, Big Nancy. They had six boys, including one, Nicholas, who died as a young child. In 1938, Tommy was elected to Congress. Tommy and Big Nancy were dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. They even named one of their sons after the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt D’Alessandro. After bringing six boys into the world, the D’alessandros finally had a girl. Little Nancy D’ Alessandro was born March 26th, 1940, and it made local headlines. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>He won that election, his first of many. Two years later, Tommy D’Alessandro married Annunciata Lombardi, a local girl, six years his junior, Big Nancy. They had six boys, including one, Nicholas, who died as a young child. In 1938, Tommy was elected to Congress. Tommy and Big Nancy were dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. They even named one of their sons after the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt D’Alessandro. After bringing six boys into the world, the D’alessandros finally had a girl. Little Nancy D’ Alessandro was born March 26th, 1940, and it made local headlines. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I was born, our whole thing was, we were born devoutly Catholic, proud of our Italian-American heritage, fiercely patriotic, and in our case staunchly democratic. That was our neighborhood, Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I was born, our whole thing was, we were born devoutly Catholic, proud of our Italian-American heritage, fiercely patriotic, and in our case staunchly democratic. That was our neighborhood, Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For little Nancy, the family business was politics, local politics.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We were taught that we had responsibility to help other people, and politics was one way to do that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And to help other people, they had to win. Winning opened doors, and Tommy relished the victories.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>I carried Little Italy by 69 votes. Palmisano again, I beat him by 2800. At Janetsky again, I beat them by 11,000.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>I carried Little Italy by 69 votes. Palmisano again, I beat him by 2800. At Janetsky again, I beat them by 11,000.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy D’Alessandro Jr. Taught his daughter her most legendary, if underappreciated, skill.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>You have to have the votes, so you have to know how to count.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Before she even graduated from high school, little Nancy got a sound education on the nuts and bolts of running a political operation, including the importance of a good ground game.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Before she even graduated from high school, little Nancy got a sound education on the nuts and bolts of running a political operation, including the importance of a good ground game.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I could just remember seeing these people come to the house at night and have their community meetings and you’re going to be responsible for this area, this area this area this area. This is how many votes you need to get. How many do you think you’re gonna get and that was it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I could just remember seeing these people come to the house at night and have their community meetings and you’re going to be responsible for this area, this area this area this area. This is how many votes you need to get. How many do you think you’re gonna get and that was it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The D’Alesandros, they love to win.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>And I won, I won again, again, then.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>And I won, I won again, again, then.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And he won, again and again\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> At a young age, Pelosi learned that power isn’t simply inherited and it certainly isn’t handed over by those who have it. Nope. If you want power, you have to go out and seize it. Once she got to Congress, Nancy Pelosi saw that her fellow Democrats had a big problem. In 1994, the Democrats lost the House for the first time in 40 years. This moment is sometimes called the Republican Revolution. Change was the message, tax cuts, term limits, and smaller government. It was led by a firebrand congressman from Georgia.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> At a young age, Pelosi learned that power isn’t simply inherited and it certainly isn’t handed over by those who have it. Nope. If you want power, you have to go out and seize it. Once she got to Congress, Nancy Pelosi saw that her fellow Democrats had a big problem. In 1994, the Democrats lost the House for the first time in 40 years. This moment is sometimes called the Republican Revolution. Change was the message, tax cuts, term limits, and smaller government. It was led by a firebrand congressman from Georgia.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newt Gingrich: \u003c/strong>This is a contract with Americans for America.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Having won the House for his party, Newt Gingrich became the first Republican speaker in forty years. A thorn in the side of Democrats.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newt Gingrich: \u003c/strong>Our proposals, which will come out in May to shrink the federal government, to shrink the bureaucracy, to eliminate some departments, to save the taxpayers’ money, to move to a balanced budget, that’s what the voters want.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newt Gingrich: \u003c/strong>Our proposals, which will come out in May to shrink the federal government, to shrink the bureaucracy, to eliminate some departments, to save the taxpayers’ money, to move to a balanced budget, that’s what the voters want.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>They were in a deep depression.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Anna Eshoo, one of Nancy Pelosi’s closest friends in Congress. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>I mean, they were so stunned. Well, they had been the majority in the house for 40 years and then to drop off into nothingness. Oh my God.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>I mean, they were so stunned. Well, they had been the majority in the house for 40 years and then to drop off into nothingness. Oh my God.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Many of the junior Democratic congress members would get together to commiserate over dinner at an Italian restaurant or someone’s house.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>That, the gang. It was a raucous, great group. Nancy always would talk about winning, though, and how to win. She made up her mind that we needed to win\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>That, the gang. It was a raucous, great group. Nancy always would talk about winning, though, and how to win. She made up her mind that we needed to win\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She had strong opinions about how things should be run, thought that House Democratic leadership did a lousy job managing a banking scandal, and hadn’t done enough to modernize the way they ran campaigns. But to change things, Pelosi would have to overcome a huge obstacle.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>Congress is still a man’s club.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Leon Panetta, once a member of the gang from California, who became Obama’s head of the CIA.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>You’ve got to fight your way, and Nancy was willing to fight her way. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>When Pelosi got to Congress, women made up about 5% of the House. Anna Eshoo relayed this one story. She wasn’t there at the time, but she heard about it later. Nancy and some other Congresswomen were listening to the men talk about childbirth. Apparently the men were complaining about how hard childbirth was. For them\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>When Pelosi got to Congress, women made up about 5% of the House. Anna Eshoo relayed this one story. She wasn’t there at the time, but she heard about it later. Nancy and some other Congresswomen were listening to the men talk about childbirth. Apparently the men were complaining about how hard childbirth was. For them\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>and she tries to get into the conversation. Now she had five babies in six years, you know? She was just so shocked that what the women were trying to say, the guys were. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>and she tries to get into the conversation. Now she had five babies in six years, you know? She was just so shocked that what the women were trying to say, the guys were. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Dominating.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>She would do an awful lot of listening, and she would listen, but then she would have something to say that was a lot more at the point of what we were concerned about. It wasn’t just complaining, it was like, what are we going to do about it?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>She would do an awful lot of listening, and she would listen, but then she would have something to say that was a lot more at the point of what we were concerned about. It wasn’t just complaining, it was like, what are we going to do about it?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi was getting tired of listening. She wanted to get stuff done. And as election after election passed, she saw something that the men in charge wouldn’t acknowledge. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi was getting tired of listening. She wanted to get stuff done. And as election after election passed, she saw something that the men in charge wouldn’t acknowledge. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>94, 96, 98, I was like, there’s no plan to win.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Leadership thought that the Republican revolution was just a blip, that things would go back to the way they were, with Democrats in charge. It was just matter of time. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Leadership thought that the Republican revolution was just a blip, that things would go back to the way they were, with Democrats in charge. It was just matter of time. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It was more of an attitude thing, like the pendulum will swing, but I didn’t see really a decision to have it be a wrecking ball, not a pendulum, a wreckin’ ball. You decide to win, and then you make every decision in favor of winning. Quite frankly, I’m really tired of losing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It was more of an attitude thing, like the pendulum will swing, but I didn’t see really a decision to have it be a wrecking ball, not a pendulum, a wreckin’ ball. You decide to win, and then you make every decision in favor of winning. Quite frankly, I’m really tired of losing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She came into Congress wanting to make life better, for people who are often forgotten\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>This is not for the faint of heart. This is rough. But if you know why you’re doing it, that makes everything okay. My why was one in five children in America goes to sleep hungry at night. One in five Children in America, it lives in poverty. That’s my why, is to ask, go there for the children, for the Children.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>This is not for the faint of heart. This is rough. But if you know why you’re doing it, that makes everything okay. My why was one in five children in America goes to sleep hungry at night. One in five Children in America, it lives in poverty. That’s my why, is to ask, go there for the children, for the Children.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We don’t know exactly when Nancy Pelosi decided to run for leadership. When I asked Pelosi why she wanted to be leader, her line is, other people wanted me to run. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We don’t know exactly when Nancy Pelosi decided to run for leadership. When I asked Pelosi why she wanted to be leader, her line is, other people wanted me to run. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I got here, after a few years, members came to me and said, you should run for leadership. In fact, you should for speaker. I said, well, I absolutely positively would not do that. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I got here, after a few years, members came to me and said, you should run for leadership. In fact, you should for speaker. I said, well, I absolutely positively would not do that. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Barbara Boxer, the former senator from California, remembers a different Pelosi. They would commute back and forth from D.C. Together, chatting the whole time.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Barbara Boxer, the former senator from California, remembers a different Pelosi. They would commute back and forth from D.C. Together, chatting the whole time.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Boxer: \u003c/strong>We could just yak yak about everything. One of those days on the plane, we were talking about, what is your dream in politics? What do you really want to do? And she asked me that, and I said, I want to be U.S. Senator. This is when I was in the House, which was a pipe dream, trust me. Now, I’m telling you, Nancy says, that never happened. So maybe I dreamed it. And she said, I want be Speaker of the House.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Boxer: \u003c/strong>We could just yak yak about everything. One of those days on the plane, we were talking about, what is your dream in politics? What do you really want to do? And she asked me that, and I said, I want to be U.S. Senator. This is when I was in the House, which was a pipe dream, trust me. Now, I’m telling you, Nancy says, that never happened. So maybe I dreamed it. And she said, I want be Speaker of the House.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You had to have some chutzpah at that point in her career to say, I wanna be speaker.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You had to have some chutzpah at that point in her career to say, I wanna be speaker.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Boxer: \u003c/strong>Chutzpah doesn’t begin to describe it. It was impossible.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Walking in the street, I ain’t foam with these sidewalks. Okay. They’ll stop for us. Believe me, they will.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Walking in the street, I ain’t foam with these sidewalks. Okay. They’ll stop for us. Believe me, they will.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After eating at Chiparelli’s in Baltimore with Nancy’s childhood friend, Mary Ann, we jaywalk across the street to Nancy’s Childhood Home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>The D’Alesandro Mansion. This is where young Nancy was born, right here in this home. You’ll see the plaques. Mercy Little Italy Health Center in memory of Nancy and Tommy D’Alesandro Jr.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>The D’Alesandro Mansion. This is where young Nancy was born, right here in this home. You’ll see the plaques. Mercy Little Italy Health Center in memory of Nancy and Tommy D’Alesandro Jr.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big house. It’s a three-story brick row house on the corner of Albert Marl and Fawn streets.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, and good bricklayer. The Talons are noted for that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Back in the 40s, when Tommy D’Alesandro Jr. Was mayor, the House was essentially a political headquarters, often buzzing with activity. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Her father’s office was here when he was mayor, so he was right in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But everybody knew that if they couldn’t reach the mayor, next best was talk to his political partner and wife, Big Nancy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But everybody knew that if they couldn’t reach the mayor, next best was talk to his political partner and wife, Big Nancy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>My mom was spectacular. If she were living now, I don’t know if she might be president of the United States. She was so capable. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>My mom was spectacular. If she were living now, I don’t know if she might be president of the United States. She was so capable. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy was glamorous and smart. She loved betting on horses at the local track. She even invented a beauty product, had a patent registered for a facial steaming device. It was called Beautifier Vaporizer for treatment of the skin. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy was glamorous and smart. She loved betting on horses at the local track. She even invented a beauty product, had a patent registered for a facial steaming device. It was called Beautifier Vaporizer for treatment of the skin. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>And basically, it’s just boiling water, but it looks pretty dramatic.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>And basically, it’s just boiling water, but it looks pretty dramatic.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Susan Page. She wrote a biography about Pelosi.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>Her mother kept what was called the favor file, which was basically a recording of the favors that constituents would come in and want to get from the mayor, whether it was better housing or help with a kid who had gotten in trouble with the law or whatever. And she would help figure out how they might be able to help this person and also keep a record so that they could go back to them when the next campaign came around and they needed some election help. And who was sitting on her right side during these sessions when people would file through their home looking for favors.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>Her mother kept what was called the favor file, which was basically a recording of the favors that constituents would come in and want to get from the mayor, whether it was better housing or help with a kid who had gotten in trouble with the law or whatever. And she would help figure out how they might be able to help this person and also keep a record so that they could go back to them when the next campaign came around and they needed some election help. And who was sitting on her right side during these sessions when people would file through their home looking for favors.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Little Nancy, that’s who. She would take handwritten notes, later typed onto index cards and filed away.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>It is perfect training for being a congressional leader where your members have favors they need done and you keep track of them so that you can cash them in when you need them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>It is perfect training for being a congressional leader where your members have favors they need done and you keep track of them so that you can cash them in when you need them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I was a girl, I could hear what my mother would say when somebody would come to the door if they wanted a place to live in the projects, a bed in a city hospital, somebody going to jail or getting out of jail or whatever it happened to be.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I was a girl, I could hear what my mother would say when somebody would come to the door if they wanted a place to live in the projects, a bed in a city hospital, somebody going to jail or getting out of jail or whatever it happened to be.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy would help her neighbors with all kinds of problems, but they were also her husband’s constituents. So when election time came around, she’d open up the favor file to, in a sense, balance the books. She’d send women volunteers out to collect the votes. It’s been a key part of machine politics since the beginning. The ground game.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy would help her neighbors with all kinds of problems, but they were also her husband’s constituents. So when election time came around, she’d open up the favor file to, in a sense, balance the books. She’d send women volunteers out to collect the votes. It’s been a key part of machine politics since the beginning. The ground game.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Women have always been the strength of the Democratic Party because you have to own the ground.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Women have always been the strength of the Democratic Party because you have to own the ground.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Speakers of the House wield enormous power. If the President and Vice President die, the Speaker becomes President. They dictate the agenda, appoint members to committees. In effect, Speakers decide which legislation lives or dies, or gets amended, and how. But Speaker of the house isn’t a job that just falls into your lap. Here’s what you need to do. Build alliances. Show that you have a vision. Raise funds for the party. So they’ll elect you to party leadership. That’s your stepping stone to speakership. One of the highest positions is whip. The term whip comes from England. The whipper in was the assistant to the huntsman, the person who keeps the hounds in line. The job requires deep trust as you’re herding votes. Hounds have to know you’ll use the whip. Early on, Pelosi learned a hard lesson about counting on the support of colleagues. She remembers thinking she had convinced a senior member of Congress to support her campaign to join the powerful Appropriations Committee, a coveted position. But when the time came, he voted for her opponent, so she cornered him. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Speakers of the House wield enormous power. If the President and Vice President die, the Speaker becomes President. They dictate the agenda, appoint members to committees. In effect, Speakers decide which legislation lives or dies, or gets amended, and how. But Speaker of the house isn’t a job that just falls into your lap. Here’s what you need to do. Build alliances. Show that you have a vision. Raise funds for the party. So they’ll elect you to party leadership. That’s your stepping stone to speakership. One of the highest positions is whip. The term whip comes from England. The whipper in was the assistant to the huntsman, the person who keeps the hounds in line. The job requires deep trust as you’re herding votes. Hounds have to know you’ll use the whip. Early on, Pelosi learned a hard lesson about counting on the support of colleagues. She remembers thinking she had convinced a senior member of Congress to support her campaign to join the powerful Appropriations Committee, a coveted position. But when the time came, he voted for her opponent, so she cornered him. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>You said that when even knowing, no, even knowing on the race, I’m for you. He said, yeah, that’s what I said. Well, knowing who’s in the race I’m, for you, so I say to people if they say you’d be so great, that’s a no. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>You said that when even knowing, no, even knowing on the race, I’m for you. He said, yeah, that’s what I said. Well, knowing who’s in the race I’m, for you, so I say to people if they say you’d be so great, that’s a no. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi started studying what motivated her members. What were the carrots? And what were the sticks? Here’s Anna Eshoo again, Pelosi’s close friend in Congress. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi started studying what motivated her members. What were the carrots? And what were the sticks? Here’s Anna Eshoo again, Pelosi’s close friend in Congress. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>She came to know members better than they knew themselves. I always thought that. I thought, oh, that poor deer over there. He doesn’t know that she knows him backward and forward. She had her own internal study of people. She understood them. She made it her business to know them, to know their families, to know their children, to their districts. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>She came to know members better than they knew themselves. I always thought that. I thought, oh, that poor deer over there. He doesn’t know that she knows him backward and forward. She had her own internal study of people. She understood them. She made it her business to know them, to know their families, to know their children, to their districts. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Whip is an internal party position, so there’s no regular election schedule. You have to wait for someone to retire or decide to run for Senate or go back to state politics. Pelosi announced her bid ahead of time anyway to send a signal.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Whip is an internal party position, so there’s no regular election schedule. You have to wait for someone to retire or decide to run for Senate or go back to state politics. Pelosi announced her bid ahead of time anyway to send a signal.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Said, you know, you’re breaking into the line. I said, what are we talking about? Because they had it. You’re gonna be next. You’ll be with, and you’ll move up to leader, and you will be with. And they had all guys. They had all the guys. And I said no, we’ve been waiting over 200 years, and that’s it. That’s it, and I know I can win. I’m not asking anybody to take a risk. I know, I’m gonna win.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Said, you know, you’re breaking into the line. I said, what are we talking about? Because they had it. You’re gonna be next. You’ll be with, and you’ll move up to leader, and you will be with. And they had all guys. They had all the guys. And I said no, we’ve been waiting over 200 years, and that’s it. That’s it, and I know I can win. I’m not asking anybody to take a risk. I know, I’m gonna win.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clearly Pelosi had counted the votes, but she still had one big obstacle. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clearly Pelosi had counted the votes, but she still had one big obstacle. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Well, I was disappointed that she was going to run and not support me. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Well, I was disappointed that she was going to run and not support me. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Steny Hoyer, a longtime Democratic congressman from Maryland. A reporter describes Steny as the textbook politician, gregarious, smooth, and a moderate to the core. Hoyer knew Nancy well. He’d also grown up in Maryland. Actually, they’d worked together back in the 60s when Pelosi was a receptionist for a Maryland senator. When Pelosi joined Congress two decades later, Hoyer was…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Steny Hoyer, a longtime Democratic congressman from Maryland. A reporter describes Steny as the textbook politician, gregarious, smooth, and a moderate to the core. Hoyer knew Nancy well. He’d also grown up in Maryland. Actually, they’d worked together back in the 60s when Pelosi was a receptionist for a Maryland senator. When Pelosi joined Congress two decades later, Hoyer was…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Tickled Pink to see her, welcomed her with open arms. She was a great addition to the Congress.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Tickled Pink to see her, welcomed her with open arms. She was a great addition to the Congress.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We might say today they were frenemies, friends, but also rivals, eyeing the same position and leadership. Based on those wait your turn rules, he was expected to become whip when the job opened up.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We might say today they were frenemies, friends, but also rivals, eyeing the same position and leadership. Based on those wait your turn rules, he was expected to become whip when the job opened up.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And then when I ran, they were like, well, who said she could run? Poor babies. When you think I’m waiting for you, lost all these elections that say I can run. And secondly, they said, because I had a lot of support from the women, they said why don’t you all write on a piece of paper the things you would like to see us do and we’ll do them for you. This is in this century. In this century! I’m not talking about 1958, I’m talking about in this century.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And then when I ran, they were like, well, who said she could run? Poor babies. When you think I’m waiting for you, lost all these elections that say I can run. And secondly, they said, because I had a lot of support from the women, they said why don’t you all write on a piece of paper the things you would like to see us do and we’ll do them for you. This is in this century. In this century! I’m not talking about 1958, I’m talking about in this century.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But Pelosi knew how to deal with tough old politicians. Her dad had been one. She knew she’d have to get some of them on her side to win.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But Pelosi knew how to deal with tough old politicians. Her dad had been one. She knew she’d have to get some of them on her side to win.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Jack Murtha was a member from Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Jack Murtha was a member from Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Anna Eshoo again.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Anna Eshoo again.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Jack was the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to the Congress. He really looked like he was out of central casting, beautiful gray hair, impeccably dressed, his collars, his ties, very Irish and very serious about his work. And his work was all about the military. He sat on the floor in the very last seat. If you’re looking at the front of the chamber, the far left corner, it’s dark there. It’s so far away from everything else, but that’s where Jack sat.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Jack was the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to the Congress. He really looked like he was out of central casting, beautiful gray hair, impeccably dressed, his collars, his ties, very Irish and very serious about his work. And his work was all about the military. He sat on the floor in the very last seat. If you’re looking at the front of the chamber, the far left corner, it’s dark there. It’s so far away from everything else, but that’s where Jack sat.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi kept a small statue of a coal miner on her desk. It was a gift from her father, who’d gotten it from a former West Virginia Congressman.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi kept a small statue of a coal miner on her desk. It was a gift from her father, who’d gotten it from a former West Virginia Congressman.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>So Jack Murtha walks down the hall, comes in my office, and he sees that, and was like, oh my gosh. So then we became really good friends. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>So Jack Murtha walks down the hall, comes in my office, and he sees that, and was like, oh my gosh. So then we became really good friends. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Jack Murtha was a representative from coal country, so that made an impression on him. She may have represented San Francisco, but he saw the Baltimore in her. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Jack Murtha was a representative from coal country, so that made an impression on him. She may have represented San Francisco, but he saw the Baltimore in her. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>We need her in the leadership. And that was, you know, I mean, the most members weren’t noticing how the relationship grew and deepened. So they were shocked. Jack, Murtha supporting Nancy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>We need her in the leadership. And that was, you know, I mean, the most members weren’t noticing how the relationship grew and deepened. So they were shocked. Jack, Murtha supporting Nancy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Murtha would actually go on to lead her campaign for Whip.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Murtha would actually go on to lead her campaign for Whip.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>To Hoyer’s disappointment. I was surprised because Jack Murtha, I thought, had indicated to me that he would be helpful to me. That did not turn out to be the case. Pelosi was coming for Hoyer spot.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>To Hoyer’s disappointment. I was surprised because Jack Murtha, I thought, had indicated to me that he would be helpful to me. That did not turn out to be the case. Pelosi was coming for Hoyer spot.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I maybe thought it was his turn, but I didn’t know what dues he paid. I mean, that is to say, I paid all the dues in the world.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2000, Democrats were still hoping they could win back the House. They needed to flip around seven seats. Pelosi said she could pick up four seats in California, the party would have to do the rest. She kept her word, four more notes for the favor file. She remembers assuming they’d won back the majority.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>So I’m on my way to a press conference to meet the press. My staff is like holding me back like this on my coat. They said, wait a minute, we did not win the house. I said, how could they? They needed seven to win the House. They lost every other place. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She couldn’t stand it anymore. Even after delivering what she promised, they still lost. And she was still on the outside looking in.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I was doing all this stuff, resources and all that stuff.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Fundraising.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>But I had never, until I became Speaker of the House, been in the Democratic Speaker’s office. Never. Until I walked into my own office. They never invited me to anything, nothing, because they had it all lined up for themselves.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2001, the sitting whip decided not to run for re-election. It was time for Democrats to elect a new whip. To start locking down votes, Nancy Pelosi first turned to her own California delegation. Several of them actually owed their seat to her. She had a running start. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Maryland is a small state and California is a huge state, so it made it very difficult. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Steny Hoyer again. Pelosi also raised more than twice as much money for candidates as Hoyer. Showing that you can raise money is important. It helps solidify your role as a strong party leader and it gives you leverage. Some members who didn’t support Pelosi, well, she never forgot. Washington legend has it she punished the longtime congressman from Michigan, John Dingell, helping ensure he was deposed from his high power committee chairmanship. Because he didn’t support her for whip. And even Steny Hoyer had to appreciate how meticulous she was. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Steny Hoyer again. Pelosi also raised more than twice as much money for candidates as Hoyer. Showing that you can raise money is important. It helps solidify your role as a strong party leader and it gives you leverage. Some members who didn’t support Pelosi, well, she never forgot. Washington legend has it she punished the longtime congressman from Michigan, John Dingell, helping ensure he was deposed from his high power committee chairmanship. Because he didn’t support her for whip. And even Steny Hoyer had to appreciate how meticulous she was. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Nancy’s a very, very hard worker. She’s very tenacious. She’s a thorough, she’s very smart. She is a wonderful counter of votes. When it was time for the vote, Pelosi was confident.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I tried to tell them that I’m going to win this. But they, to the end, which I was on the floor, I could hear them, you gotta be for standing tomorrow. This is a one vote race for babies. They didn’t know how to count.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I tried to tell them that I’m going to win this. But they, to the end, which I was on the floor, I could hear them, you gotta be for standing tomorrow. This is a one vote race for babies. They didn’t know how to count.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi predicted she’d get 120 votes, she got 118. Steny Hoyer got 95. So, on October 10th, 2001, just a few weeks after 9-11,\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>And a woman has broken new ground in the nation’s capital, California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi becomes Democratic whip, the number two House leader right behind the Democratic leader, Richard Gephardt, the highest ranking woman in Congress ever. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Given 9/11, Pelosi’s groundbreaking election was easy to miss. But it was unmistakable. Pelosi was on her way to becoming Speaker.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Given 9/11, Pelosi’s groundbreaking election was easy to miss. But it was unmistakable. Pelosi was on her way to becoming Speaker.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>What’s remarkable about the campaign that she ran was that she didn’t run it like a girl.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>What’s remarkable about the campaign that she ran was that she didn’t run it like a girl.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Biographer Susan Page again.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>You know, a lot of the women in Congress had accepted kind of secondary roles in leadership, like being the caucus secretary, or doing what it was the men were willing to let them to do because no woman had been in a real leadership position before, in a really leadership position that had power. And she just thought that was nonsense and plowed ahead. And I think to the dismay of these men who were in charge, she won.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>You know, a lot of the women in Congress had accepted kind of secondary roles in leadership, like being the caucus secretary, or doing what it was the men were willing to let them to do because no woman had been in a real leadership position before, in a really leadership position that had power. And she just thought that was nonsense and plowed ahead. And I think to the dismay of these men who were in charge, she won.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If there were not many more women in Congress, I might not have won. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Hmm, speaker image.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>A speaker, you know, or a whip at that time. Because whip was the first step. They knew, boom.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You just heard about Nancy Pelosi’s secret sauce, her recipe for taking over Congress. Her father taught her to bring the wrecking ball. Her mother taught her to bring a carrot with the favor file. Pelosi wasn’t whipped for long. In 2002, the party leader position opened up and she took it. Pelosi was now head of Democrats. But one thing standing in her way to being speaker, Republicans losing again wasn’t an option. It would be total war. Pelosi went on the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes, right before the 2006 election. Dressed in bright red, she sat across from correspondent Leslie Stahl.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You just heard about Nancy Pelosi’s secret sauce, her recipe for taking over Congress. Her father taught her to bring the wrecking ball. Her mother taught her to bring a carrot with the favor file. Pelosi wasn’t whipped for long. In 2002, the party leader position opened up and she took it. Pelosi was now head of Democrats. But one thing standing in her way to being speaker, Republicans losing again wasn’t an option. It would be total war. Pelosi went on the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes, right before the 2006 election. Dressed in bright red, she sat across from correspondent Leslie Stahl.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leslie Stahl: \u003c/strong>You have called your Republican colleagues, these are quotes, immoral, corrupt, you say they’re running a criminal enterprise.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leslie Stahl: \u003c/strong>You have called your Republican colleagues, these are quotes, immoral, corrupt, you say they’re running a criminal enterprise.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi – 60 Minutes: \u003c/strong>Well, actually, when I called them those names, I was being gentle. There are much worse things I could have said about them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The segment is titled, Two Heartbeats Away. Message, if the Democrats win, this woman will likely become the next Speaker of the House. It was a reference to the presidential line of succession. Speaker of House is third in line after the President and Vice President. For many Americans, this was probably the first real glimpse they got of Pelosi. She lays into the President, George W. Bush, often with a radiant smile. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The segment is titled, Two Heartbeats Away. Message, if the Democrats win, this woman will likely become the next Speaker of the House. It was a reference to the presidential line of succession. Speaker of House is third in line after the President and Vice President. For many Americans, this was probably the first real glimpse they got of Pelosi. She lays into the President, George W. Bush, often with a radiant smile. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi – 60 Minutes: \u003c/strong>This isn’t personal. He’s incompetent. Well, I think he is. That’s personal. Well, then I’m sorry. That’s his problem. I have very thick skin. I don’t care what they say about me. This election is about them. This is a referendum on them. Making them lame ducks is good enough for me. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi – 60 Minutes: \u003c/strong>This isn’t personal. He’s incompetent. Well, I think he is. That’s personal. Well, then I’m sorry. That’s his problem. I have very thick skin. I don’t care what they say about me. This election is about them. This is a referendum on them. Making them lame ducks is good enough for me. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Of course, Republicans fought tooth and nail to avoid becoming lame ducks. They flooded the airwaves with ads, warning that unless Republicans prevailed, the top leader in Congress would be an ultra-liberal from wacky San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Of course, Republicans fought tooth and nail to avoid becoming lame ducks. They flooded the airwaves with ads, warning that unless Republicans prevailed, the top leader in Congress would be an ultra-liberal from wacky San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Ad: \u003c/strong>You’ll reward illegal aliens with welfare, food stamps, and free education. And I had the privilege because of a woman being very defined by the Republicans coming after me. Hundreds of thousands of ads. Imagine how much money that cost.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Ad: \u003c/strong>You’ll reward illegal aliens with welfare, food stamps, and free education. And I had the privilege because of a woman being very defined by the Republicans coming after me. Hundreds of thousands of ads. Imagine how much money that cost.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>At this time, the US was over three years into the war in Iraq. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Pelosi had access to information about the 9-11 attacks. She voted for intervention in Afghanistan as retaliation for the attacks, but she never supported Bush starting the Iraq War, voting against it with 132 of her colleagues. As the war intensified, casualties mounting, the search for weapons of mass destruction coming up empty. Pelosi kept her eyes on the prize, winning back the House in the 2006 midterm elections.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>At this time, the US was over three years into the war in Iraq. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Pelosi had access to information about the 9-11 attacks. She voted for intervention in Afghanistan as retaliation for the attacks, but she never supported Bush starting the Iraq War, voting against it with 132 of her colleagues. As the war intensified, casualties mounting, the search for weapons of mass destruction coming up empty. Pelosi kept her eyes on the prize, winning back the House in the 2006 midterm elections.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Nancy is, and I say this as a compliment, she is comfortable with power and exercising it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Nancy is, and I say this as a compliment, she is comfortable with power and exercising it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Rahm Emanuel came in to help. He’s somewhat intense, known for shouting at donors for more money, stabbing a steak knife into the table to make a point.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Understands winning gives you that. If you win.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Understands winning gives you that. If you win.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>You get to set the table.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>You get to set the table.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>To win back the House, Democrats had to pick up 15 seats. So Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid launched their answer to Newt Gingrich’s contract with America. Six for 06, a plan that promised more funding for national security, a minimum wage hike, and affordable healthcare. Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel was busy recruiting candidates he thought could win.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>To win back the House, Democrats had to pick up 15 seats. So Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid launched their answer to Newt Gingrich’s contract with America. Six for 06, a plan that promised more funding for national security, a minimum wage hike, and affordable healthcare. Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel was busy recruiting candidates he thought could win.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>We’re gonna find people that open the door to a group of voters because we gotta swing a district. You can’t win it on Democratic voters.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>We’re gonna find people that open the door to a group of voters because we gotta swing a district. You can’t win it on Democratic voters.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And they started bringing in money. Federal fundraising tallies show that, compared to the previous election cycle, Democrats raised about 50% more for House candidates in 2006. Republicans still outspent Democrats, but Pelosi and Emanuel put a dent in their financial advantage. Some Democrats, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie, others, criticize taking money from corporations and PACs. How do you, and how does Nancy Pelosi, how do you see that criticism?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And they started bringing in money. Federal fundraising tallies show that, compared to the previous election cycle, Democrats raised about 50% more for House candidates in 2006. Republicans still outspent Democrats, but Pelosi and Emanuel put a dent in their financial advantage. Some Democrats, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie, others, criticize taking money from corporations and PACs. How do you, and how does Nancy Pelosi, how do you see that criticism?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>You don’t tie one hand behind your back, okay? We can’t just put people on the field and then leave them out there to self-defend themselves. I hate what the court did. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>You don’t tie one hand behind your back, okay? We can’t just put people on the field and then leave them out there to self-defend themselves. I hate what the court did. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>He’s referring to the Supreme Court case Citizens United decided in 2010. It reversed older restrictions on campaign spending and allowed corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>He’s referring to the Supreme Court case Citizens United decided in 2010. It reversed older restrictions on campaign spending and allowed corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>But that’s the world we live in. Again, she’s comfortable with power. Nancy exists in the arena.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Whichever party controls the White House usually loses seats in Congress in the midterms. But Pelosi was never content to just let the pendulum swing or it naturally would. Winning is never inevitable.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It isn’t that the tide goes in and out. That’s probably what they thought in the nineties that the Tide went out and now come back in. So I’m not really wedded to that concept. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It isn’t that the tide goes in and out. That’s probably what they thought in the nineties that the Tide went out and now come back in. So I’m not really wedded to that concept. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For the first time in 12 years, Democrats seized back control of the House. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>Washington turned upside down.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – President Bush: \u003c/strong>It was a thumping.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>Power switch in the House. Democrats now firmly in control there. The Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, set to become the first woman Speaker of the House in American history. Pelosi was finally on top.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>On January 4, 2007, holding one grandchild and surrounded by others, Pelosi was officially elected speaker. Republican leader John Boehner graciously handed Pelosi the gavel and history\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Mr. Speaker, I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship. Before we move forward, because there’s so many children here and so many of them asked me if they could touch the gavel, 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. There it is.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Mr. Speaker, I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship. Before we move forward, because there’s so many children here and so many of them asked me if they could touch the gavel, 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. There it is.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We’re here for the children, we’re here \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For the children would be Nancy Pelosi’s mantra.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I know that sometimes I have to take a punch and sometimes I have to throw a punch for the children, for the children.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The stars had finally aligned for Baltimore’s favorite daughter. Both her parents lived long enough to see Pelosi elected to Congress. They died before she became the most powerful woman in U.S. Politics ever. But their influence was undeniable. Little Nancy D’Alessandro had become the speaker.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The stars had finally aligned for Baltimore’s favorite daughter. Both her parents lived long enough to see Pelosi elected to Congress. They died before she became the most powerful woman in U.S. Politics ever. But their influence was undeniable. Little Nancy D’Alessandro had become the speaker.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, the power of the speaker is awesome. There’s nothing to compare to that. It’s the second highest president, vice president. Let me feel your pulse.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, the power of the speaker is awesome. There’s nothing to compare to that. It’s the second highest president, vice president. Let me feel your pulse.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats had seized power, but she’d soon find out the difference between winning \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We’ll climb the fence. If that doesn’t work, we’ll pole vault in. If that does not work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re not letting anything stand in our way. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We’ll climb the fence. If that doesn’t work, we’ll pole vault in. If that does not work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re not letting anything stand in our way. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Did you believe it?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Yes, I was determined we were going to get this done.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And govern it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And govern it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zeke Emanuel: \u003c/strong>The system is falling apart, costs are going up, people are getting pissed off. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>If you think your healthcare is great now, just wait until the government runs it for you. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>A lot going on. Thank you. You’re giving me PTSD right now.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>A lot going on. Thank you. You’re giving me PTSD right now.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s coming up next on The speaker. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. It’s reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound design by Christopher Beale. Fat-checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Susman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor in chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California, local.\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#Transcript\">View the full episode transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Long before she became Madam Speaker, Nancy Pelosi was “Little Nancy” D’Alesandro. Raised in Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland, she learned the lessons of power from her larger-than-life parents: “Tommy the Elder,” a Congressman and mayor of Baltimore, and “Big Nancy,” a master political organizer. Decades later, those lessons served her well. In 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, Pelosi wanted to win it back – and win big. But first: she’d have to wage a war against the men standing in her way, including within her own party. \u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>If you had a phrase or a few words to describe Nancy Pelosi, what would they be?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Well, I’ll just tell you what I told President Obama when he was first kind of meeting her. He goes, just tell me a little. I mean, he knew her, but didn’t know her. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Rahm Emanuel. He was President Obama’s chief of staff. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>And I said, Nancy Pelosi is 99% D’Alesandro and 1% Pelosi. And what did that mean to you? She was her father’s daughter. And I says, if you understand that, you understand Nancy Pelosi. Do not forget that you’re dealing with a D’Alesandro.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., was mayor of Baltimore, Maryland from 1947 to 1959. Before that, he served five terms in Congress, representing Maryland’s third district. For Emanuel, that Italian-American political family is the key to understanding Pelosi. Or, as she was known in Baltimore, Little Nancy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott In the Field: \u003c/strong>So we’re in Little Italy in Baltimore on Albermarle Street hoping to get some background on little Nancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariella Markowitz: \u003c/strong>I just keep thinking of hairspray. Good morning Baltimore.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s our producer Ariella Markowitz. To learn more about the neighborhood and Nancy’s family, we met up with one of Nancy Pelosi’s childhood playmates. Sorry to make you come out in the rain.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, that’s all right. I’m only a block away. I live on the corner. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Mary Ann Campanella is 84 years old. She grew up here in Baltimore, little Italy, just across the street from Nancy. She’s lived in the neighborhood all of her life. Her deep voice, strong opinions, quaffed silver hair and warm embrace, they all reminded me of my mother. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, come on. Whoops. Careful. I’m all right, babe. I just got needles in my knees. Old age sucks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Our plan was to check out one of the neighborhood’s best known restaurants, Chipparelli’s. It opened in 1940, that’s the same year little Nancy was born.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Hi, sweetie.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Chiaparelli’s is a classic Italian restaurant. White tablecloths, waitresses that call you babe and honey. I order a cup of Italian wedding soup and lasagna while Marianne holds court in the dining room.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>How you doing today, baby doll? You okay?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>It’s the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else’s business.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Hi Mike, what are you doing in here today? It’s his birthday. Oh it’s your birthday? Oh Mike, I didn’t know it was your birthday. Happy birthday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>He’s a neighborhood guy. I knew Maryann all my life. She lives right across the street.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Mike Turocchi. He and Campanella grew up with Nancy D’Alesandro. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>She was queen princess. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>She was just the princess and the father. Tommy was what you call the consummate neighborhood mayor. I mean, he knew everybody. If you had a problem, you went to Tom. I mean my father was.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Senior, Tommy, senior.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>My father was an immigrant. He couldn’t hardly speak English and couldn’t read or write. If he had a problem, go see Mr. Thomas. I think Nancy learned from her father by watching and listening and seeing the way he ran the city and the way people looked up to him and the way he run his daily business.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy’s dad, Mayor Tommy, was the out-front, back-slapping, charismatic politician. But his wife ran the operation behind the scenes. Her name was Annunziata, but everyone called her Big Nancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>Her mother was a very, very powerful person.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Powerful how like what do you?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>Just her demeanor and her presence, the way she carried herself, she was just, she was not a Little Italy mom. Let’s just put it that way. I mean, my mother was a mother of 12 and wore housecoats. Nancy was always dressed to the nines, looked great all the time. It was just the antithesis of what we were.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy had dreams of going to law school, never fulfilled. But her political instincts and raw talent for organizing, campaigning, and bringing order to chaos all rubbed off on the Nancy Pelosi we know today.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Tirocchi: \u003c/strong>I thought that that’s the product of her environment. Her mother had aspiration for her to be something special, and she was.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>As I sat with these old timers, a picture of Nancy Pelosi came into sharper focus. A child watching her parents run the family business. Big city politics. I’m Scott Shafer from KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. This is The Speaker. Today, how Nancy Pelosi used those lessons to seize power. Baltimore style. Last episode, Nancy Pelosi beat out Harry Britt in a special election for San Francisco’s congressional seat. She told us about that day, in 1987, when she got sworn in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Just the D’Alessandro family is big enough to be a crowd.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy the Elder got to see his daughter take the oath of office, along with the rest of the family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I was born, my father was in Congress. When I in first grade, he became mayor of Baltimore. When I went to college, he was still mayor of Baltimore, so I did grow up in a political atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>How are you? You sound a lot better. How are YOU? That’s all the Italian I know, Mr. Mayor. That’s pretty good. You did pretty good! You get A for effort.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy D’Alesandro Jr. Was a smart-talking politician with a pencil mustache. And in this PBS footage from 1980, he’s retired from politics but still formally dressed in a brown three-piece suit and what looks like a large checkered bowtie. Tommy was one of 13 kids born in Little Italy, Baltimore. In 8th grade, he was kicked out of school by a no-nonsense nun. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>She was a great, she was a saint. She was the two-fisted sister. She used to slug us every time. Literally? Oh yeah. She knocked him less than two times. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Host: \u003c/strong>Did you deserve it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>Sometimes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>As a kid, Tommy was often seen around the neighborhood hustling. He peddled newspapers on the street, sold chewing gum to sex workers. He spoke some Yiddish, would run errands for Jewish neighbors. He was the neighborhood Shabbos Goy. The non-Jew who helped Jews observed the Sabbath. Later, he sold insurance. In his early 20s, he decided to run for local office, the Maryland House of Delegates. He sought the endorsement of the local political bosses. Who would hang out in the smoke-filled Rennert Hotel, playing pinocle and eating oysters. They told Tommy to come back with 500 voter signatures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>So I went around and got a petition. On this petition I had written, we, the undersigned registered Democratic voters of the 3rd Ward, 1st Legislative District recommend for your favorable consideration the candidacy of Tommy D’Alessandro, Jr. For the House of Delegates. He was born and raised in the district, knows the people and their needs, and would be a credit to both city and state if elected, signed by 500 people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>He won that election, his first of many. Two years later, Tommy D’Alessandro married Annunciata Lombardi, a local girl, six years his junior, Big Nancy. They had six boys, including one, Nicholas, who died as a young child. In 1938, Tommy was elected to Congress. Tommy and Big Nancy were dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. They even named one of their sons after the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt D’Alessandro. After bringing six boys into the world, the D’alessandros finally had a girl. Little Nancy D’ Alessandro was born March 26th, 1940, and it made local headlines. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I was born, our whole thing was, we were born devoutly Catholic, proud of our Italian-American heritage, fiercely patriotic, and in our case staunchly democratic. That was our neighborhood, Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For little Nancy, the family business was politics, local politics.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We were taught that we had responsibility to help other people, and politics was one way to do that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And to help other people, they had to win. Winning opened doors, and Tommy relished the victories.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>I carried Little Italy by 69 votes. Palmisano again, I beat him by 2800. At Janetsky again, I beat them by 11,000.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Tommy D’Alessandro Jr. Taught his daughter her most legendary, if underappreciated, skill.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>You have to have the votes, so you have to know how to count.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Before she even graduated from high school, little Nancy got a sound education on the nuts and bolts of running a political operation, including the importance of a good ground game.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I could just remember seeing these people come to the house at night and have their community meetings and you’re going to be responsible for this area, this area this area this area. This is how many votes you need to get. How many do you think you’re gonna get and that was it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The D’Alesandros, they love to win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tommy D’Alesandro the Elder: \u003c/strong>And I won, I won again, again, then.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And he won, again and again\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> At a young age, Pelosi learned that power isn’t simply inherited and it certainly isn’t handed over by those who have it. Nope. If you want power, you have to go out and seize it. Once she got to Congress, Nancy Pelosi saw that her fellow Democrats had a big problem. In 1994, the Democrats lost the House for the first time in 40 years. This moment is sometimes called the Republican Revolution. Change was the message, tax cuts, term limits, and smaller government. It was led by a firebrand congressman from Georgia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newt Gingrich: \u003c/strong>This is a contract with Americans for America.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Having won the House for his party, Newt Gingrich became the first Republican speaker in forty years. A thorn in the side of Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newt Gingrich: \u003c/strong>Our proposals, which will come out in May to shrink the federal government, to shrink the bureaucracy, to eliminate some departments, to save the taxpayers’ money, to move to a balanced budget, that’s what the voters want.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>They were in a deep depression.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Anna Eshoo, one of Nancy Pelosi’s closest friends in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>I mean, they were so stunned. Well, they had been the majority in the house for 40 years and then to drop off into nothingness. Oh my God.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Many of the junior Democratic congress members would get together to commiserate over dinner at an Italian restaurant or someone’s house.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>That, the gang. It was a raucous, great group. Nancy always would talk about winning, though, and how to win. She made up her mind that we needed to win\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She had strong opinions about how things should be run, thought that House Democratic leadership did a lousy job managing a banking scandal, and hadn’t done enough to modernize the way they ran campaigns. But to change things, Pelosi would have to overcome a huge obstacle.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>Congress is still a man’s club.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Leon Panetta, once a member of the gang from California, who became Obama’s head of the CIA.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>You’ve got to fight your way, and Nancy was willing to fight her way. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>When Pelosi got to Congress, women made up about 5% of the House. Anna Eshoo relayed this one story. She wasn’t there at the time, but she heard about it later. Nancy and some other Congresswomen were listening to the men talk about childbirth. Apparently the men were complaining about how hard childbirth was. For them\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>and she tries to get into the conversation. Now she had five babies in six years, you know? She was just so shocked that what the women were trying to say, the guys were. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Dominating.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leon Panetta: \u003c/strong>She would do an awful lot of listening, and she would listen, but then she would have something to say that was a lot more at the point of what we were concerned about. It wasn’t just complaining, it was like, what are we going to do about it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi was getting tired of listening. She wanted to get stuff done. And as election after election passed, she saw something that the men in charge wouldn’t acknowledge. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>94, 96, 98, I was like, there’s no plan to win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Leadership thought that the Republican revolution was just a blip, that things would go back to the way they were, with Democrats in charge. It was just matter of time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It was more of an attitude thing, like the pendulum will swing, but I didn’t see really a decision to have it be a wrecking ball, not a pendulum, a wreckin’ ball. You decide to win, and then you make every decision in favor of winning. Quite frankly, I’m really tired of losing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She came into Congress wanting to make life better, for people who are often forgotten\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>This is not for the faint of heart. This is rough. But if you know why you’re doing it, that makes everything okay. My why was one in five children in America goes to sleep hungry at night. One in five Children in America, it lives in poverty. That’s my why, is to ask, go there for the children, for the Children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We don’t know exactly when Nancy Pelosi decided to run for leadership. When I asked Pelosi why she wanted to be leader, her line is, other people wanted me to run. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I got here, after a few years, members came to me and said, you should run for leadership. In fact, you should for speaker. I said, well, I absolutely positively would not do that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Barbara Boxer, the former senator from California, remembers a different Pelosi. They would commute back and forth from D.C. Together, chatting the whole time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Boxer: \u003c/strong>We could just yak yak about everything. One of those days on the plane, we were talking about, what is your dream in politics? What do you really want to do? And she asked me that, and I said, I want to be U.S. Senator. This is when I was in the House, which was a pipe dream, trust me. Now, I’m telling you, Nancy says, that never happened. So maybe I dreamed it. And she said, I want be Speaker of the House.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You had to have some chutzpah at that point in her career to say, I wanna be speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Boxer: \u003c/strong>Chutzpah doesn’t begin to describe it. It was impossible.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Walking in the street, I ain’t foam with these sidewalks. Okay. They’ll stop for us. Believe me, they will.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>After eating at Chiparelli’s in Baltimore with Nancy’s childhood friend, Mary Ann, we jaywalk across the street to Nancy’s Childhood Home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>The D’Alesandro Mansion. This is where young Nancy was born, right here in this home. You’ll see the plaques. Mercy Little Italy Health Center in memory of Nancy and Tommy D’Alesandro Jr.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big house. It’s a three-story brick row house on the corner of Albert Marl and Fawn streets.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Oh, and good bricklayer. The Talons are noted for that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Back in the 40s, when Tommy D’Alesandro Jr. Was mayor, the House was essentially a political headquarters, often buzzing with activity. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Ann Campanella: \u003c/strong>Her father’s office was here when he was mayor, so he was right in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But everybody knew that if they couldn’t reach the mayor, next best was talk to his political partner and wife, Big Nancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>My mom was spectacular. If she were living now, I don’t know if she might be president of the United States. She was so capable. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy was glamorous and smart. She loved betting on horses at the local track. She even invented a beauty product, had a patent registered for a facial steaming device. It was called Beautifier Vaporizer for treatment of the skin. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>And basically, it’s just boiling water, but it looks pretty dramatic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Susan Page. She wrote a biography about Pelosi.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>Her mother kept what was called the favor file, which was basically a recording of the favors that constituents would come in and want to get from the mayor, whether it was better housing or help with a kid who had gotten in trouble with the law or whatever. And she would help figure out how they might be able to help this person and also keep a record so that they could go back to them when the next campaign came around and they needed some election help. And who was sitting on her right side during these sessions when people would file through their home looking for favors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Little Nancy, that’s who. She would take handwritten notes, later typed onto index cards and filed away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>It is perfect training for being a congressional leader where your members have favors they need done and you keep track of them so that you can cash them in when you need them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>When I was a girl, I could hear what my mother would say when somebody would come to the door if they wanted a place to live in the projects, a bed in a city hospital, somebody going to jail or getting out of jail or whatever it happened to be.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Big Nancy would help her neighbors with all kinds of problems, but they were also her husband’s constituents. So when election time came around, she’d open up the favor file to, in a sense, balance the books. She’d send women volunteers out to collect the votes. It’s been a key part of machine politics since the beginning. The ground game.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Women have always been the strength of the Democratic Party because you have to own the ground.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Speakers of the House wield enormous power. If the President and Vice President die, the Speaker becomes President. They dictate the agenda, appoint members to committees. In effect, Speakers decide which legislation lives or dies, or gets amended, and how. But Speaker of the house isn’t a job that just falls into your lap. Here’s what you need to do. Build alliances. Show that you have a vision. Raise funds for the party. So they’ll elect you to party leadership. That’s your stepping stone to speakership. One of the highest positions is whip. The term whip comes from England. The whipper in was the assistant to the huntsman, the person who keeps the hounds in line. The job requires deep trust as you’re herding votes. Hounds have to know you’ll use the whip. Early on, Pelosi learned a hard lesson about counting on the support of colleagues. She remembers thinking she had convinced a senior member of Congress to support her campaign to join the powerful Appropriations Committee, a coveted position. But when the time came, he voted for her opponent, so she cornered him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>You said that when even knowing, no, even knowing on the race, I’m for you. He said, yeah, that’s what I said. Well, knowing who’s in the race I’m, for you, so I say to people if they say you’d be so great, that’s a no. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi started studying what motivated her members. What were the carrots? And what were the sticks? Here’s Anna Eshoo again, Pelosi’s close friend in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>She came to know members better than they knew themselves. I always thought that. I thought, oh, that poor deer over there. He doesn’t know that she knows him backward and forward. She had her own internal study of people. She understood them. She made it her business to know them, to know their families, to know their children, to their districts. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Whip is an internal party position, so there’s no regular election schedule. You have to wait for someone to retire or decide to run for Senate or go back to state politics. Pelosi announced her bid ahead of time anyway to send a signal.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Said, you know, you’re breaking into the line. I said, what are we talking about? Because they had it. You’re gonna be next. You’ll be with, and you’ll move up to leader, and you will be with. And they had all guys. They had all the guys. And I said no, we’ve been waiting over 200 years, and that’s it. That’s it, and I know I can win. I’m not asking anybody to take a risk. I know, I’m gonna win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clearly Pelosi had counted the votes, but she still had one big obstacle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Well, I was disappointed that she was going to run and not support me. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s Steny Hoyer, a longtime Democratic congressman from Maryland. A reporter describes Steny as the textbook politician, gregarious, smooth, and a moderate to the core. Hoyer knew Nancy well. He’d also grown up in Maryland. Actually, they’d worked together back in the 60s when Pelosi was a receptionist for a Maryland senator. When Pelosi joined Congress two decades later, Hoyer was…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Tickled Pink to see her, welcomed her with open arms. She was a great addition to the Congress.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>We might say today they were frenemies, friends, but also rivals, eyeing the same position and leadership. Based on those wait your turn rules, he was expected to become whip when the job opened up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>And then when I ran, they were like, well, who said she could run? Poor babies. When you think I’m waiting for you, lost all these elections that say I can run. And secondly, they said, because I had a lot of support from the women, they said why don’t you all write on a piece of paper the things you would like to see us do and we’ll do them for you. This is in this century. In this century! I’m not talking about 1958, I’m talking about in this century.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>But Pelosi knew how to deal with tough old politicians. Her dad had been one. She knew she’d have to get some of them on her side to win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Jack Murtha was a member from Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Anna Eshoo again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>Jack was the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to the Congress. He really looked like he was out of central casting, beautiful gray hair, impeccably dressed, his collars, his ties, very Irish and very serious about his work. And his work was all about the military. He sat on the floor in the very last seat. If you’re looking at the front of the chamber, the far left corner, it’s dark there. It’s so far away from everything else, but that’s where Jack sat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi kept a small statue of a coal miner on her desk. It was a gift from her father, who’d gotten it from a former West Virginia Congressman.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>So Jack Murtha walks down the hall, comes in my office, and he sees that, and was like, oh my gosh. So then we became really good friends. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Jack Murtha was a representative from coal country, so that made an impression on him. She may have represented San Francisco, but he saw the Baltimore in her. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anna Eshoo: \u003c/strong>We need her in the leadership. And that was, you know, I mean, the most members weren’t noticing how the relationship grew and deepened. So they were shocked. Jack, Murtha supporting Nancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Murtha would actually go on to lead her campaign for Whip.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>To Hoyer’s disappointment. I was surprised because Jack Murtha, I thought, had indicated to me that he would be helpful to me. That did not turn out to be the case. Pelosi was coming for Hoyer spot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I maybe thought it was his turn, but I didn’t know what dues he paid. I mean, that is to say, I paid all the dues in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2000, Democrats were still hoping they could win back the House. They needed to flip around seven seats. Pelosi said she could pick up four seats in California, the party would have to do the rest. She kept her word, four more notes for the favor file. She remembers assuming they’d won back the majority.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>So I’m on my way to a press conference to meet the press. My staff is like holding me back like this on my coat. They said, wait a minute, we did not win the house. I said, how could they? They needed seven to win the House. They lost every other place. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She couldn’t stand it anymore. Even after delivering what she promised, they still lost. And she was still on the outside looking in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I was doing all this stuff, resources and all that stuff.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Fundraising.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>But I had never, until I became Speaker of the House, been in the Democratic Speaker’s office. Never. Until I walked into my own office. They never invited me to anything, nothing, because they had it all lined up for themselves.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>In 2001, the sitting whip decided not to run for re-election. It was time for Democrats to elect a new whip. To start locking down votes, Nancy Pelosi first turned to her own California delegation. Several of them actually owed their seat to her. She had a running start. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Maryland is a small state and California is a huge state, so it made it very difficult. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Steny Hoyer again. Pelosi also raised more than twice as much money for candidates as Hoyer. Showing that you can raise money is important. It helps solidify your role as a strong party leader and it gives you leverage. Some members who didn’t support Pelosi, well, she never forgot. Washington legend has it she punished the longtime congressman from Michigan, John Dingell, helping ensure he was deposed from his high power committee chairmanship. Because he didn’t support her for whip. And even Steny Hoyer had to appreciate how meticulous she was. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steny Hoyer: \u003c/strong>Nancy’s a very, very hard worker. She’s very tenacious. She’s a thorough, she’s very smart. She is a wonderful counter of votes. When it was time for the vote, Pelosi was confident.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I tried to tell them that I’m going to win this. But they, to the end, which I was on the floor, I could hear them, you gotta be for standing tomorrow. This is a one vote race for babies. They didn’t know how to count.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Pelosi predicted she’d get 120 votes, she got 118. Steny Hoyer got 95. So, on October 10th, 2001, just a few weeks after 9-11,\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>And a woman has broken new ground in the nation’s capital, California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi becomes Democratic whip, the number two House leader right behind the Democratic leader, Richard Gephardt, the highest ranking woman in Congress ever. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Given 9/11, Pelosi’s groundbreaking election was easy to miss. But it was unmistakable. Pelosi was on her way to becoming Speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>What’s remarkable about the campaign that she ran was that she didn’t run it like a girl.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Biographer Susan Page again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Susan Page: \u003c/strong>You know, a lot of the women in Congress had accepted kind of secondary roles in leadership, like being the caucus secretary, or doing what it was the men were willing to let them to do because no woman had been in a real leadership position before, in a really leadership position that had power. And she just thought that was nonsense and plowed ahead. And I think to the dismay of these men who were in charge, she won.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>If there were not many more women in Congress, I might not have won. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Hmm, speaker image.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>A speaker, you know, or a whip at that time. Because whip was the first step. They knew, boom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>You just heard about Nancy Pelosi’s secret sauce, her recipe for taking over Congress. Her father taught her to bring the wrecking ball. Her mother taught her to bring a carrot with the favor file. Pelosi wasn’t whipped for long. In 2002, the party leader position opened up and she took it. Pelosi was now head of Democrats. But one thing standing in her way to being speaker, Republicans losing again wasn’t an option. It would be total war. Pelosi went on the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes, right before the 2006 election. Dressed in bright red, she sat across from correspondent Leslie Stahl.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leslie Stahl: \u003c/strong>You have called your Republican colleagues, these are quotes, immoral, corrupt, you say they’re running a criminal enterprise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi – 60 Minutes: \u003c/strong>Well, actually, when I called them those names, I was being gentle. There are much worse things I could have said about them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The segment is titled, Two Heartbeats Away. Message, if the Democrats win, this woman will likely become the next Speaker of the House. It was a reference to the presidential line of succession. Speaker of House is third in line after the President and Vice President. For many Americans, this was probably the first real glimpse they got of Pelosi. She lays into the President, George W. Bush, often with a radiant smile. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi – 60 Minutes: \u003c/strong>This isn’t personal. He’s incompetent. Well, I think he is. That’s personal. Well, then I’m sorry. That’s his problem. I have very thick skin. I don’t care what they say about me. This election is about them. This is a referendum on them. Making them lame ducks is good enough for me. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Of course, Republicans fought tooth and nail to avoid becoming lame ducks. They flooded the airwaves with ads, warning that unless Republicans prevailed, the top leader in Congress would be an ultra-liberal from wacky San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – Ad: \u003c/strong>You’ll reward illegal aliens with welfare, food stamps, and free education. And I had the privilege because of a woman being very defined by the Republicans coming after me. Hundreds of thousands of ads. Imagine how much money that cost.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>At this time, the US was over three years into the war in Iraq. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Pelosi had access to information about the 9-11 attacks. She voted for intervention in Afghanistan as retaliation for the attacks, but she never supported Bush starting the Iraq War, voting against it with 132 of her colleagues. As the war intensified, casualties mounting, the search for weapons of mass destruction coming up empty. Pelosi kept her eyes on the prize, winning back the House in the 2006 midterm elections.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Nancy is, and I say this as a compliment, she is comfortable with power and exercising it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Rahm Emanuel came in to help. He’s somewhat intense, known for shouting at donors for more money, stabbing a steak knife into the table to make a point.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>Understands winning gives you that. If you win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>You get to set the table.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>To win back the House, Democrats had to pick up 15 seats. So Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid launched their answer to Newt Gingrich’s contract with America. Six for 06, a plan that promised more funding for national security, a minimum wage hike, and affordable healthcare. Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel was busy recruiting candidates he thought could win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>We’re gonna find people that open the door to a group of voters because we gotta swing a district. You can’t win it on Democratic voters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And they started bringing in money. Federal fundraising tallies show that, compared to the previous election cycle, Democrats raised about 50% more for House candidates in 2006. Republicans still outspent Democrats, but Pelosi and Emanuel put a dent in their financial advantage. Some Democrats, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie, others, criticize taking money from corporations and PACs. How do you, and how does Nancy Pelosi, how do you see that criticism?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>You don’t tie one hand behind your back, okay? We can’t just put people on the field and then leave them out there to self-defend themselves. I hate what the court did. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>He’s referring to the Supreme Court case Citizens United decided in 2010. It reversed older restrictions on campaign spending and allowed corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>But that’s the world we live in. Again, she’s comfortable with power. Nancy exists in the arena.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Whichever party controls the White House usually loses seats in Congress in the midterms. But Pelosi was never content to just let the pendulum swing or it naturally would. Winning is never inevitable.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>It isn’t that the tide goes in and out. That’s probably what they thought in the nineties that the Tide went out and now come back in. So I’m not really wedded to that concept. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For the first time in 12 years, Democrats seized back control of the House. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>Washington turned upside down.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival – President Bush: \u003c/strong>It was a thumping.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Archival News Clip: \u003c/strong>Power switch in the House. Democrats now firmly in control there. The Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, set to become the first woman Speaker of the House in American history. Pelosi was finally on top.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>On January 4, 2007, holding one grandchild and surrounded by others, Pelosi was officially elected speaker. Republican leader John Boehner graciously handed Pelosi the gavel and history\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Mr. Speaker, I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship. Before we move forward, because there’s so many children here and so many of them asked me if they could touch the gavel, 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. There it is.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We’re here for the children, we’re here \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>For the children would be Nancy Pelosi’s mantra.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>I know that sometimes I have to take a punch and sometimes I have to throw a punch for the children, for the children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The stars had finally aligned for Baltimore’s favorite daughter. Both her parents lived long enough to see Pelosi elected to Congress. They died before she became the most powerful woman in U.S. Politics ever. But their influence was undeniable. Little Nancy D’Alessandro had become the speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Well, the power of the speaker is awesome. There’s nothing to compare to that. It’s the second highest president, vice president. Let me feel your pulse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats had seized power, but she’d soon find out the difference between winning \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>We’ll climb the fence. If that doesn’t work, we’ll pole vault in. If that does not work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re not letting anything stand in our way. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Did you believe it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nancy Pelosi: \u003c/strong>Yes, I was determined we were going to get this done.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>And govern it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zeke Emanuel: \u003c/strong>The system is falling apart, costs are going up, people are getting pissed off. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mick Mulvaney: \u003c/strong>If you think your healthcare is great now, just wait until the government runs it for you. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rahm Emanuel: \u003c/strong>A lot going on. Thank you. You’re giving me PTSD right now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>That’s coming up next on The speaker. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. It’s reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound design by Christopher Beale. Fat-checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Susman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor in chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California, local.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#Transcript\">View Full Episode Transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Before her historic Speakership, even before she got to the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi worked for years outside the spotlight as an official in the California Democratic party while she raised her family in San Francisco. That was until 1987, when tragic circumstances led her to do something she hadn’t considered before: run for Congress. Her first hurdle? A city in crisis and a motivated opponent from a community impacted by a deadly epidemic.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Transcript\">Episode Transcript \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Hi, I’m Scott Schafer. I’ve been covering politics for nearly 30 years, especially here in San Francisco. As a reporter, I’ve watched a lot of people rise from San Francisco into the national arena. Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Dianne Feinstein. But no one has fascinated me more than Nancy Pelosi, trailblazer, power broker, lightning rod, first woman ever speaker of the house. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Tonight on Express, the campaigning has been intense. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: I remember watching her way back in 1987. That was the first time she was running for Congress here in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: We do have 14 candidates here, so can we keep this discussion on an even scale? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is from a televised debate hosted here at KQED, the public media outlet where I work. All the candidates are sitting on risers, lots of poofy, teased hair, wide-framed glasses, and Pelosi is in the front row, perfect blowout, wearing a purple blazer. [00:00:57][15.8]\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I think this is the most hilarious thing that a woman can come into this district from outside of it and buy this election. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: [00:01:04] Pelosi’s critics, mostly other Democrats, call her a wealthy socialite. They say she’s the establishment pick. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: And what we have is we have, in this election, somebody saying, the machine backs me, I’ve got a million bucks, I don’t live in your district, I have never met many of your slobs, but I’m going to be your new leader because I got bucks and I’m powerful. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: How can she relate to people like me a single-parent working mother? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Let’s let Nancy talk. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I don’t think you have to be sick to be a doctor or poor to understand the problems of the poor. I have spent my life committed to the ideals of the Democratic Party. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It’s an interesting moment, Pelosi turns their argument around, saying that she’s the right candidate precisely because she’s been working behind the scenes. She knows the game inside out. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I believe that I will be the best and most effective representative for San Francisco because I have worked in that arena for 25 years, both at the local, state, and national level. I have work with the members of Congress long before they went to Congress and long since. I have persuaded them on votes, both by one-on-one persuasion and by mobilizing in their districts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Last year, Pelosi announced she was retiring. As a journalist, I started thinking about how she went from being relatively unknown to one of the most formidable politicians of her generation, and about the role she’s played leading up to this political moment, a moment where faith in the Democratic Party and public trust in U.S. Institutions are at their lowest in decades. And she agreed to talk, a series of five interviews. Okay, we’re gonna put you right there I wear the red light.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Unfortunately, this is not visual because I got off the plane. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Our first interview, she had just gotten off a cross-country flight, she was also nursing a cold, but I knew how to get things started on the right foot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I’m glad I’m seeing that. I’m going to go right into it, okay? I think I should test them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Nancy Pelosi is kind of a tough interview. I’ve done it many times before, usually about a political issue. She’s always warm and gracious until you ask something that annoys her and then she lets you know it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I don’t feel that way at all. I don’t even know why you’re asking that question. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She can be loyal to her talking points. Frustrating. How do you want people to remember your legacy?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Not so fast on the legacy. We have to win the house, which we will do. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She’ll completely deny the premise of your question. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: No, I didn’t oppose it for many years. I posed it when they suggested it, and then Kalka said they won it and I supported it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But I figured this is the time, right now, before she leaves office, to really reckon with the force that is Nancy Pelosi. From KQED, this is The Speaker, how Nancy Pelosi changed the face of power. This is the inside story of her rise and what she did when she got there, as told by the people who were in the rooms where it all happened.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Anna Eshoo: Nancy always would talk about winning and how to win. I said, Mr. President, we’re so excited about doing health care, but understand this, it’s going to be carpet bombing, take no prisoners, you name it, total warfare.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rahm Emanuel: She is comfortable with power and exercising it. Nancy exists in the arena. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mick Mulvaney: I’ve often described it with a little bit tongue-in-cheek, because I’m not going to accuse anybody. I want to make clear here that I’m not slandering anybody, I’m not accusing anybody of any criminal activity, but she reminded me of a mafia boss. That’s how she ran the place.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: They were going to get a bullet in my effing brain. You know, they used the F word a lot about me throughout the whole thing. They were gonna hang Vice President Gallows for him.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Today, how Nancy Pelosi got to Congress. She had been the ultimate insider, working for years as a high-up official in the Democratic Party, forged by San Francisco politics. But also an outsider, a woman, a mother of five kids, behind the scenes. Had you not ever considered running with her?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I had zero interest in running for office. Why? It was like, did you not want to go skydiving? I didn’t even think of it. I loved public service, and I was the ultimate volunteer, the chair of the California Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: There she was, diligently working behind the scenes, until a twist of fate tested what she was made of. Nancy Pelosi never planned to run for public office, but in 1987, San Francisco’s congresswoman, Sala Burton, was dying. She was a big woman. She was, like, shrunk up on cancer. That’s John Burton, Sala’s brother-in-law, part of the family’s political operation. Let me set the scene here. The congresswoman is on her deathbed. She hasn’t yet endorsed a successor, but her endorsement is priceless. Her family has held this seat since the \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Burton: She calls the group of us back to her hospital bed, where she’s just like, and she tells us, I’m not going to run again. I’d like you to support Nancy Pelosi. She starts going into Nancy Pelosi, she’s operational. She’s right on the issue. She says, she said, he said, and I walk out, she says, is she bullshitting or what?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: John Burton didn’t see Nancy Pelosi as a candidate. She was the Democratic fundraiser, organizer, behind the scenes. But Sawa saw it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Burton: Something else. She saw in Nancy Pelosi a tough, strong, determined, liberal, caring for people person. I mean, it was just, I walked out and I said, holy my God. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: She said to me, I’m going to ask you if you will run for my seat, and I need to know your answer now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi told Salah she had to check with her family first. She had five kids. By 1987, only one was still living at home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: My daughter Alexandra, she says, mother, what teenage girl does not want her mother out of the house three nights of the week? Then she said, get a life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Maybe her youngest daughter didn’t really see it, but Pelosi definitely had a life. She moved her family to San Francisco in 1969, just a couple years after the Summer of Love, a time when the city was home to artists like Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane. Pelosi was hardly a member of the counterculture, but insists she loves the Gratiful Dead. For those first few years, she had her hands full with the kids.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Especially, I have five and six years to have to understand. Sometimes I didn’t even wash my face. Being a mom is probably the best preparation for anything because you are multitasking all of the time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But politics was in her DNA. She’d grown up in a political family. Her dad became the mayor of Baltimore when she was just seven. San Francisco is her husband Paul’s hometown. The year they moved back, his brother Ron was on the board of supervisors. They lived down the street from San Francisco mayor Joe Alioto.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: When people came and saw our house, they would say, oh, this is a big house. We’ll have lots of political events here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: And you did.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And we did. How do you turn people down then? And my kids were so cute as they were getting a little bit bigger, they were making the hors d’oeuvres and serving the hors-d’oeuves and the rest of that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She started taking on more political stuff, organizing volunteers, hosting candidates in her home, raising money. She became a prolific fundraiser for Democratic candidates. In 1976, California Governor Jerry Brown decided to run for president. A left coast challenge to Jimmy Carter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jerry Brown: Ten years of problems in Vietnam and Watergate and all the scandals you read about in the FBI and the CIA. I think people, I think the people are ready for a new generation of leadership.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Brown entered the race pretty late in the game, but Pelosi used her Baltimore political connections to help him win Maryland’s Democratic primary. Here’s another candidate, Barbara Mikulski. Pelosi helped her win a Senate seat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Barbara Mikulski: [00:09:44] I was out there going earring to earring with Linda Chavez. She had Ronald Reagan, and I had Nancy Pelosi.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: By 1981, Pelosi was chair of the California Democratic Party, in charge of getting Democrats elected all across the state. She had a reputation for being relentless, but she was also known for her personal touch. When Nancy talked to you, you felt like you were the center of the world. That’s Art Agnos, a former mayor of San Francisco and also, by the way, my ex-boss. I worked on his staff from 1986 to 1992. That was before I became a reporter for KQED in 1998. Anyway, Art remembers going over to Pelosi’s house for dinner back in the 70s. He was just a staffer himself back then. She invited us to her home for dinner with Leo, who was the main person. Art’s talking about Leo McCarthy. McCarthy was the speaker of the state assembly. That’s California’s version of the House of Representatives. She made sure that… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Art Agnos: I brought my kids? No one ever said bring your kids. Pelosi even had her kids babysitting his kids, taking them upstairs to the bedroom, playing games. Her kids are taking care of my kids. I was the staff guy. She generated a kind of loyalty and love from my family that came from her attentive, thoughtful, sweet interest in us.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is what Sala Burton saw in Nancy Pelosi, according to Art.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Sala Burton anointed Nancy Pelosi to be her successor. After she died on February 1st, there would be a primary just two months later, in April, to pick the top candidate for each party. So now the race was on. Sala’s brother-in-law, John Burton, would run Pelosi’s campaign and they would use the Burton playbook.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Phil Burton: No person is an island under themselves. We all need each other and we’ve got each other, I promise you that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s Phil Burton, John’s older brother, Sal’s husband, a chain-smoking giant in San Francisco politics. The Burton political machine specialized in something that seems pretty standard today — coalition politics. They mobilized groups other politicians overlooked. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Their coalition was gay. It wasn’t LGBT as it is today, but you know, it was, it wasn’t called that. Gay, African-American, labor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Phil Burton put it a little differently.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Phil Burton: I’ve got the support of the gays and the cops as well, ain’t that a bitch? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: We ran everything at that day’s game. We were the most diverse operation politically in this city, period. And Nancy was a part of that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s another former San Francisco mayor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: I’m Willie Brown, period. I was part of Phil Burton’s operation. What do you remember about her? Well, I just remember that she was a very attractive woman. Oh, very opinionated, I must say.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She sort of had an unlikely friendship with John, who once accidentally left cocaine in the pocket of a suit he sent to the dry cleaners.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: In the drinking world. John was all the things that you wouldn’t even think Nancy would know about. But they had a friendship.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Close with the Burtons, raised campaign funds for them, but she also helped their rivals within the party.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: I’m telling you.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She had her whole body in both camps.” Her campaign chose the slogan, a voice that will be heard. Her campaign promised all the other candidates could talk, but with her connections and her experience, she would be the most effective at doing things in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: It was not like she was going to be the next Jesse Jackson. No, Nancy was the pro who was going to help orchestrate the process.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She pulled together a team of field captains who had experience with the United Farm Workers Union to set up her ground game. An army of volunteers knocked on doors, made phone calls, staffed campaign events and signed up other volunteers to get out the vote on election day. At one point, Pelosi’s brother Tommy came to visit campaign headquarters in San Francisco. He’d been the mayor of Baltimore just like their father.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And he said, Daddy sent me to make sure that you had your ground game in place. So I said, well, come see what it is.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: On sheets of butcher paper, Pelosi and her team had mapped out the strategy in true Burton fashion. They had divided up the city into factions and were seeing how they could make a winning coalition, gaming out worst-case scenarios.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Every black vote, Asian, gay vote, the lefties, if we give them every possible vote, not that they would get every possible, Nancy loses by a couple thousand votes. We have sent our troops out to get 5,000 more votes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Their team sent targeted mailers to different communities—Italian, African American, gay—and they quietly slipped some to Republicans. John Burton again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Burton: I’d go to things with her, go to that, and just watch her. One time some group was kind of screwing over her and walked out and she says, don’t worry, we will show them how truly unimportant they are after the election.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But, she wasn’t going to take a single vote for granted. Before she ran for the House in 1987, Pelosi had run in one other election inside the party for chair of the Democratic National Committee. That’s the group that coordinates strategy, establishes the Democratic Party platform. She lost. And she learned a lesson she never forgot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I had done everything in the party and worked with many people. People that I had worked with forever were making terrible statements about me.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi said she was the target of all sorts of attacks, including sexist ones. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: So when I ran for Congress, and people would call me and say, did you see what someone so said? I said, yeah, don’t bother me with that. If you’re concerned about that, get on the phone and make some calls, walk some precincts, but don’t think I care about what somebody else says. And I would not have realized that had I not seen how Democrats treated Democrats when I run for the other office.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Democrats against Democrats, a knife fight in a phone booth. That’s what Pelosi was entering in the primary. Against a motivated opponent fighting for a city reeling from a deadly epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Where did it go?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is an old news clip from 1987. A singer charms a crowd with a famous Judy Garland cover.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Politics in San Francisco, a fundraiser in a cabaret that caters to gays. At this event, the candidate is gay as well, Democrat Harry Britt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The bar is packed with gay and lesbian supporters. The sign at the door reads, We’re just wild about Harry Britt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: While he would be a political outsider elsewhere in the country with his progressive agenda, he fits in easily in San Francisco. Liberal credentials are essential. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt was a San Francisco supervisor and Nancy Pelosi’s toughest rival. He was soft-spoken, with a serious tone, kind of an intellectual, a little socially awkward. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: I’m from Texas and I come from a family of Southerners. I was a Methodist minister for a major part of my life and that was\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That was Britt in a TV interview. He never intended to run for office. Like Pelosi, he was more behind the scenes. In 1977, he volunteered to help elect Harvey Milk to the board of supervisors. Milk was the first openly gay person elected in California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harvey Milk: There are 15 million lesbian and gay men waiting to hear your voice! We are coming out of the closet! When are you going to come out of yours?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The next year, Harvey Milk was assassinated, along with the mayor at the time, George Moscone. The killer was Dan White. He had been on the board of supervisors with Milk. A year before he died, Harvey milk made a recording. A list of people he would want to replace him if he were assassinated. And who was on that list?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harvey Milk: The third choice I would have would be Harry Britt, who most people don’t know, but I’ve watched Harry, and Harry’s been involved with three campaigns, and I’ve watched Harry grow and grow and grow, and a very, very dedicated and strong person. One who will not be pushed around. One who understands where the movement is and where it must go. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: Harvey’s gone, but all of us who cared about him and the things that he stood for realize now that it’s our job.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: The murders unified, made us cohesive, and that translated into political muscle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Tom Amiano was active in the gay rights movement, friends with Harvey Milk, and Harry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: Harvey was very charismatic and out there, and Harry was just a steady, even presence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: In the early 80s, the community was still reeling from the assassinations, and then another deadly threat emerged. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: AIDS was rampant. Every day somebody died. Every day you saw somebody with purple splotches or you’d say, hey, what happened to Michael? He was supposed to show. You didn’t hear, he died.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: I moved to San Francisco in 1981, just as some gay men started coming down with some unusual symptoms. Thrush or yeast infections in the throat that wouldn’t go away, fungal infections in the lungs, lesions on the skin, weight loss. Doctors didn’t know why, but soon they were dying. As the casualties mounted, so did the fear. There was no test for the virus yet. We didn’t even know it was a virus. Many of us were worried, afraid we had this ticking time bomb inside of us. But there was nothing to do but be careful and wait. It escalated quickly. By 1984, it became common to see people with full blown AIDS emaciated, looking old beyond their years, covered with purple splotches, Kaposi sarcoma. We’d see men who looked to be at death’s door, slowly walking or shuffling around the Castro neighborhood. There were funerals, lots of funerals, many for people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. It was a slow motion disaster. But it seemed no one in Washington cared. Harry Britt again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: So I think it’s legitimate for us to point out that the people who care the most about AIDS and certainly the gay community which cares in a passionate way about AIDS is very united behind my candidacy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: These were the stakes of the 87th Special Election. In that Congressional race, many saw Harry Britt, not Pelosi, as the champion the gay community needed in Washington. It was also a chance to make history.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: It was beyond who’s Harry Britt, it was beyond whose Nancy Pelosi. It was that we might get an openly gay member of Congress.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s Gwen Craig. She came to San Francisco in 1975. She worked closely with Milk and would become involved in Harry Britt’s campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: The nonchalance, it seemed, of Congress and the executive administrations just was maddening.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The CDC first published an article describing five young gay patients in Los Angeles whose immune systems suddenly failed in 1981. But President Reagan didn’t publicly address the crisis for four years, only then because he was asked about it. By 1987, nearly 2,000 San Franciscans had died of AIDS. I remember a lot of people in the gay community thought that Pelosi, a wealthy, straight, white woman, wasn’t the best person to fight for them in Washington. The Brit campaign didn’t hold back. Here’s one ad they ran.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival Ad: Inspector Riley, Missing Person Squad. Yeah, we’ve heard that report. No, we haven’t seen Nancy Pelosi. That’s why she’s a missing person. Nobody has seen Nancy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt’s campaign sent out mailers calling her a dilettante.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Most people didn’t know what that meant.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And they said, does that mean you’re a debut talent? Aren’t you old to be a debut? They did one piece.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: Call that referred to Nancy Pelosi as party girl because she came from being head of the Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Gwen Craig again, Lesbian Activist. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: I didn’t like that piece at all.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: What was it that you didn’t like about it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: Well, I thought it was rather misogynist. You know, I though it was sexist. I thought that it belittled her in a way because of her gender. So I became then uncomfortable with my support of Harry for a while after that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: They warned us it would be brutal, and it would a bloodbath, and I’d be sorry I ever got in the race, but I wasn’t frightened by any of that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi did something in 1987 that she rarely does. She agreed to a televised debate a week before the election, right here at KQED. Pelosi was the front-runner. She had a lot to lose.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Party insider, runs ahead in recent polls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt was close on her heels. In addition to being part of the gay movement, he was a democratic socialist. He believed in challenging corporate power structures, and once tried to rein in wealthy landlords with commercial rent control.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: A gay activist who is to the left of his chief opponents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Just before the debate, Pelosi’s campaign threatened to pull out. Her staff was worried the other candidates would gang up on her.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Calm down a little bit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It was a free for all, with all 14 candidates left, right and center. It made for great live television.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Mr. Zur, this is not a forum for you just to make a speech. At this point in this discussion, we are—you’ve got a lot of words in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The moderators asked if her critics were right, that she was out of touch. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: But there are a lot of people who seem to be disturbed by, I guess, where you come from. The idea of your wealth and your connections among the well-to-do. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: And Harry Britt questioned whether she could be trusted to fight for everyday people.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: How can you be an effective advocate for consumer issues like keeping interest rates low on credit cards when you’ve gotten money from banks and savings and loan associations? How can really fight to get oil companies to clean up toxic waste when you got money from Chevron and Getty and all these people? I challenge Nancy Pelosi who has never had to stand up to that kind of pressure.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Based on available campaign finance records, we couldn’t verify if Pelosi took money from Chevron for her campaign. But members of the influential Getty family, her family friends who made their fortune in oil, did donate $5,000 to her congressional campaign. But Pelosi pointed her finger and returned fire.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Harry, have you taken any PAC money? Have you taken a PAC money. I have not taken any money. Any PAC money, have any you taken PAC money \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt’s campaign was mostly grassroots funded, but Pelosi? Her campaign spent around a million dollars, more than the other 13 candidates combined. Pelosi also self-funded, giving more than $200,000 to her own campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: How can she relate to people like me, a single parent, working mother, or somebody else?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Another candidate, San Francisco City Supervisor Carol Rue Silver, jumped in. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Problems are different. She’s never met a payroll. She has never had to worry about child care. She has not had a kid in a public school. She never worried about the things that worry most of the people in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Let’s let Nancy answer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: First of all, my ability to fund my own campaign to the extent that I can and to raise money over 1,500 contributors to my campaign gives me an independence that none of my candidates, I believe, share, especially the four supervisors who were reported this week to have received $1,000 each from the Embarcadero Center and then voted to give them a street this week. So if you want to talk about independence, let’s talk about Independence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi knew that she needed to do something to neutralize the idea that she was beholden to wealthy interests. So she counterpunched by saying to her opponents, well, you’re not exactly pure either. According to federal campaign fundraising data, each of the four city supervisors did receive a thousand dollar contribution from the CEO of the Embarcadero Center. That’s a set of high-rise office buildings downtown. We couldn’t verify the claim that he got a favor in return. But she’s doing something here by implying that. She’s undercutting them. It’s a classic campaign tactic, pointing out the hypocrisy in your opponent’s charge. After the primary, that same CEO gave $1,000 to Pelosi’s campaign for Congress. That’s politics. Pelosi has always argued that the PAC money she took was from Democratic allies who cared about regular people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Labor unions, from the Nurses Association, from organizations dedicated to the election of women to Congress.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: To her, raising money was just a means to an end. This was the late 80s. Money was changing politics as we knew it, and Pelosi was going to do everything she needed to do to win. You didn’t take any of that personally.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: No, I mean it’s a campaign. What do you expect?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival: There was a special election here in San Francisco today to fill a congressional seat left empty by the death of congresswoman Sala Burton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: As the election got close, Pelosi had dropped in the polls, so election day was a nail-biter. Britt needed a big turnout in the predominantly gay Castro neighborhood, and he got that. But in the end, he could not overcome Pelosi’s ground game.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival: And here in San Francisco, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi defeated Harry Britt, a city supervisor who is gay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Under rules for special elections like this one, the top contender from each party would move on to a runoff in June. Britt was out. Gwen Craig and Tom Amiano again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: People took it pretty hard. They were really disappointed, because I think a lot of people thought, we’re gonna actually get an openly gay person going to Congress. That’s going to be such a huge step forward.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: We’re all in a little bit of despair. You know, who is this woman? What does she know?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: After she won the primary, Pelosi called a meeting with AIDS activists. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: It wasn’t milquetoast ones, you know, it was angry ones. And they met with her. And I’m not saying that the reaction was 100% positive. I know that she shed some tears and I’m sure that they were sincere. But to the hard-bitten, we didn’t want tears.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt wasn’t the only person who understood the magnitude of the crisis. Pelosi also knew people who died of the disease, family friends, political staffers, people in her community.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: People were dying and I was visiting people in the hospital that we were close to and they were robust young men out there and then they were like a bag of bones in the hospitals, a bag a bones.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: During the election, Pelosi had also promised action on AIDS.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival: We want to stop spending money on a big defense budget and instead address it to the most important crisis of our time, the AIDS crisis.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: In the runoff, Pelosi easily defeated the Republican. She was on her way to Congress.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: Without objection, the gentlewoman from California is reckoned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: Thank you very much for your kind remarks and to all of you. It’s a very sentimental day for me as you can see.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When a new member of Congress is first sworn in, it’s kind of rare for them to say anything of note, let alone something controversial. But on that day, in June of 1987, Pelosi, sounding a little nervous, surprised everyone.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: And now we must take the leadership, of course, in the crisis of AIDS, and I look forward to working with you on that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Now Brit’s supporters would have to put their faith in the person who defeated him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: On a foggy morning in 1989, protesters unfurled a banner across the Golden Gate Bridge reading AIDS equals genocide, silence equals death, calling out the newly elected president and former Vice President George H.W. Bush.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: They blocked traffic for more than an hour. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I was one of the persons that sat on the bridge on January 31st, 1989. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: It was so cold.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Since 1988 Mike Shriver had been organizing with act up a direct action group focused on AIDS.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: During Pelosi’s first full term in Congress, the deaths continued unabated. There was no vaccine, no cure, limited treatment. So people took to the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: It’s one of the proudest moments of my life, actually. And as we were being pulled one person at a time to being arrested, my mentor, he said to me, if I could feel the way that I feel right now, I will live forever. I will survive the epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: By 1988, Shriver and his peers had started focusing on how to change policy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: This whole cadre of ACT UP individuals taught themselves how to become experts in research, experts in policy, experts in drug development. I happened to go down the track of the public health policy stuff.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: He remembers a meeting with Nancy Pelosi. He was there with someone who needed access to an experimental AIDS treatment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I got to sit there in the room and he talked to Mrs. Pelosi and he said, I didn’t vote for you, but you’re my representative and I expect that you’ll take care of me. And she looked him deadpan and said, absolutely, that is my job.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It was our purpose. That’s just the way it was. It wasn’t like, I really hope you will do this. This is absolutely urgent that you do this.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When I asked Pelosi about her support for AIDS funding, she was very matter of fact about it. To her, it seemed like a no-brainer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Was not prepared for discrimination. Now these people were not anti-gay, they just thought the rest of the room was.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: For sure, Pelosi had solid allies, like California Congressmembers Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman from Los Angeles. But they faced opposition because of the stigma of AIDS. And then activists had an idea.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Cleve Jones came to my house with Art Agnos when I’m a newly elected member of Congress and says he has this idea that people will make a quilt for their loved ones. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Cleve Jones was a young activist who had worked for Harvey Milk. He later went on to mobilize the community to respond to HIV AIDS and co-created what became known as the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Tens of thousands of panels, handcrafted with care, by mothers and fathers, brothers, co-workers, friends, lovers and spouses, sewn into three by six foot panels. Panels for everyone, from musicians like Freddie Mercury of Queen and Sylvester. To political activists and artists like Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe, to others who lived quieter lives but whose death crushed those who loved them. Jones had a vision. He wanted to spread huge sections of the quilt out on the National Mall in Washington.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Enormous quilts, enormous, big as the mall. Pelosi was on board to help bring the quilt to DC, but there was a hitch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: The National Park Service says, we’ll give you a corner where you can have a few patches. Can you imagine? So I said, well, they’re certainly not gonna do that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She asked the National Park Service, why can’t we display the full quilt? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It’s gonna kill the grass, but why? Because if you have something on the grass for more than 20 minutes, it kills the grass.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi had an idea.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: We have hundreds of people, we can pick it up every 20 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The National Park Service caved, and on October 11, 1987, the AIDS quilt was first displayed in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It was so beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival – AIDS memorial quilt: Bill Cathcart. Bob Greenwood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Across the National Mall, the names of the fallen echoed as Cleve Jones read some of them. I was there then.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival – AIDS memorial quilt: Douglas Lowery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi was one of the few members of Congress there. Even then, she was laser-focused. She told a reporter for GayUSA…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Now, the first day I… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Became a member, I became a co-sponsor of the Gay Civil Rights Bill, Ted Weiss’ bill, and we have a few pieces of legislation regarding AIDS, more money for AIDS, confidentiality, non-discrimination.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: At a time when HIV AIDS still felt like a death sentence, Nancy Pelosi helped change the prognosis. Pelosi co-authored the Ryan White Care Act. Ryan White was a teenager from Indiana who had hemophilia. He got AIDS from a medical treatment. After his diagnosis, his school banned him from attending class. To some lawmakers, White was someone they could help without worrying about attacks by religious zealots who thought AIDS was God’s punishment of gay men and IV drug users. Pelosi understood this. Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Art Agnos: She looked like the all-American woman. She was, she is beautiful. She had lovely kids, she had a handsome husband. What the hell is she doing with these weird people? When she showed up, she looks like us. How come she’s talking like that? And I think that gave her a entree to discussing AIDS, gay people, all the kinds of issues that are important to us in San Francisco. They listened because she looked like them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The Ryan White Care Act passed in 1990. It created a financial safety net for people with HIV who were underinsured. She also helped push through a bill that allocated funds that people with HIV could use for housing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I got to go with her, and I’m sitting there watching her work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s the conference between the House and Senate that divides up government funding. Mike Shriver remembers one instance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: The very first year that she got the most significant increase for HIV prevention was a year that a senator from Pennsylvania looked for some money for substance abuse treatment that he needed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That Senator, Arlen Specter, promised Nancy Pelosi he would restore her funding for HIV programs the next year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: He made the commitment to her and he did it. For her, you know, you live up to your word. And if you don’t remember your word, I’ll tell you what you told me. And I thought, that’s magic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Mike Shriver lives with HIV.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I relied on Ryan White funding for my care and for my dental care and had I not had that, I would not have had access to the drugs that eventually had become what continue to keep me alive and keep me in remission with my HIV disease.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: So you’re saying she’s the reason you’re still here?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I absolutely believe that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: There’s this one thing Mike told me that really stuck with me. He was telling me about a text exchange he had with Nancy after a health emergency in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I had just emailed her the day before talking about finishing my IVIG infusion, which took five consecutive days, which just flattened me out. And she wrote back, Michael, loved getting your promising report. Love you, Nancy. A couple of emojis and then thank you. I’m so lucky, I am so privileged. I do not ever underestimate, like I don’t take this for granted. Nancy is not really good about receiving compliments. It’s not her favorite thing to experience and I’ve had to do it a couple of times and realize I know this is gonna piss you off or it’s gonna make you a little bit mad but I need you to hear how important it is of what you’ve done for us. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When Pelosi ran in 1987, her slogan was a voice that will be heard. And when Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: San Francisco for giving me the privilege.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She brought it back home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: When I ran, my slogan was, a voice that will be heard. I think they’ve heard us. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It took nearly 20 years, but Pelosi was on a path to becoming the first woman ever elected House Speaker. Next time on the speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I don’t see a plan here to win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rahm Emanuel: If you win, you get to set the table. Nancy Pelosi’s path to the top. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Barbara Boxer: One of those days on the plane, we were talking about, what is your dream in politics? And she said, I want to be Speaker of the House.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: You had to have some chutzpah at that point in her career to say I want to be speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Barbara Boxer: Chutzpah doesn’t begin to describe it. It was impossible.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. Co-reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound design by Christopher Beale. Additional mixing by Brendan Willard. Fact checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Sussman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor-in-chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Before her historic Speakership, even before she got to the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi worked for years outside the spotlight as an official in the California Democratic party while she raised her family in San Francisco. That was until 1987, when tragic circumstances led her to do something she hadn’t considered before: run for Congress. Her first hurdle? A city in crisis and a motivated opponent from a community impacted by a deadly epidemic.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Before her historic Speakership, even before she got to the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi worked for years outside the spotlight as an official in the California Democratic party while she raised her family in San Francisco. That was until 1987, when tragic circumstances led her to do something she hadn’t considered before: run for Congress. Her first hurdle? A city in crisis and a motivated opponent from a community impacted by a deadly epidemic.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Hi, I’m Scott Schafer. I’ve been covering politics for nearly 30 years, especially here in San Francisco. As a reporter, I’ve watched a lot of people rise from San Francisco into the national arena. Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Dianne Feinstein. But no one has fascinated me more than Nancy Pelosi, trailblazer, power broker, lightning rod, first woman ever speaker of the house. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Hi, I’m Scott Schafer. I’ve been covering politics for nearly 30 years, especially here in San Francisco. As a reporter, I’ve watched a lot of people rise from San Francisco into the national arena. Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Dianne Feinstein. But no one has fascinated me more than Nancy Pelosi, trailblazer, power broker, lightning rod, first woman ever speaker of the house. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Tonight on Express, the campaigning has been intense. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: I remember watching her way back in 1987. That was the first time she was running for Congress here in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: We do have 14 candidates here, so can we keep this discussion on an even scale? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is from a televised debate hosted here at KQED, the public media outlet where I work. All the candidates are sitting on risers, lots of poofy, teased hair, wide-framed glasses, and Pelosi is in the front row, perfect blowout, wearing a purple blazer. [00:00:57][15.8]\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is from a televised debate hosted here at KQED, the public media outlet where I work. All the candidates are sitting on risers, lots of poofy, teased hair, wide-framed glasses, and Pelosi is in the front row, perfect blowout, wearing a purple blazer. [00:00:57][15.8]\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I think this is the most hilarious thing that a woman can come into this district from outside of it and buy this election. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: [00:01:04] Pelosi’s critics, mostly other Democrats, call her a wealthy socialite. They say she’s the establishment pick. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: And what we have is we have, in this election, somebody saying, the machine backs me, I’ve got a million bucks, I don’t live in your district, I have never met many of your slobs, but I’m going to be your new leader because I got bucks and I’m powerful. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: And what we have is we have, in this election, somebody saying, the machine backs me, I’ve got a million bucks, I don’t live in your district, I have never met many of your slobs, but I’m going to be your new leader because I got bucks and I’m powerful. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I don’t think you have to be sick to be a doctor or poor to understand the problems of the poor. I have spent my life committed to the ideals of the Democratic Party. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It’s an interesting moment, Pelosi turns their argument around, saying that she’s the right candidate precisely because she’s been working behind the scenes. She knows the game inside out. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I believe that I will be the best and most effective representative for San Francisco because I have worked in that arena for 25 years, both at the local, state, and national level. I have work with the members of Congress long before they went to Congress and long since. I have persuaded them on votes, both by one-on-one persuasion and by mobilizing in their districts.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I believe that I will be the best and most effective representative for San Francisco because I have worked in that arena for 25 years, both at the local, state, and national level. I have work with the members of Congress long before they went to Congress and long since. I have persuaded them on votes, both by one-on-one persuasion and by mobilizing in their districts.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Last year, Pelosi announced she was retiring. As a journalist, I started thinking about how she went from being relatively unknown to one of the most formidable politicians of her generation, and about the role she’s played leading up to this political moment, a moment where faith in the Democratic Party and public trust in U.S. Institutions are at their lowest in decades. And she agreed to talk, a series of five interviews. Okay, we’re gonna put you right there I wear the red light.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Last year, Pelosi announced she was retiring. As a journalist, I started thinking about how she went from being relatively unknown to one of the most formidable politicians of her generation, and about the role she’s played leading up to this political moment, a moment where faith in the Democratic Party and public trust in U.S. Institutions are at their lowest in decades. And she agreed to talk, a series of five interviews. Okay, we’re gonna put you right there I wear the red light.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Unfortunately, this is not visual because I got off the plane. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Nancy Pelosi is kind of a tough interview. I’ve done it many times before, usually about a political issue. She’s always warm and gracious until you ask something that annoys her and then she lets you know it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I don’t feel that way at all. I don’t even know why you’re asking that question. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She can be loyal to her talking points. Frustrating. How do you want people to remember your legacy?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Not so fast on the legacy. We have to win the house, which we will do. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She’ll completely deny the premise of your question. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: No, I didn’t oppose it for many years. I posed it when they suggested it, and then Kalka said they won it and I supported it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But I figured this is the time, right now, before she leaves office, to really reckon with the force that is Nancy Pelosi. From KQED, this is The Speaker, how Nancy Pelosi changed the face of power. This is the inside story of her rise and what she did when she got there, as told by the people who were in the rooms where it all happened.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Anna Eshoo: Nancy always would talk about winning and how to win. I said, Mr. President, we’re so excited about doing health care, but understand this, it’s going to be carpet bombing, take no prisoners, you name it, total warfare.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Anna Eshoo: Nancy always would talk about winning and how to win. I said, Mr. President, we’re so excited about doing health care, but understand this, it’s going to be carpet bombing, take no prisoners, you name it, total warfare.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rahm Emanuel: She is comfortable with power and exercising it. Nancy exists in the arena. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mick Mulvaney: I’ve often described it with a little bit tongue-in-cheek, because I’m not going to accuse anybody. I want to make clear here that I’m not slandering anybody, I’m not accusing anybody of any criminal activity, but she reminded me of a mafia boss. That’s how she ran the place.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: They were going to get a bullet in my effing brain. You know, they used the F word a lot about me throughout the whole thing. They were gonna hang Vice President Gallows for him.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Today, how Nancy Pelosi got to Congress. She had been the ultimate insider, working for years as a high-up official in the Democratic Party, forged by San Francisco politics. But also an outsider, a woman, a mother of five kids, behind the scenes. Had you not ever considered running with her?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I had zero interest in running for office. Why? It was like, did you not want to go skydiving? I didn’t even think of it. I loved public service, and I was the ultimate volunteer, the chair of the California Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I had zero interest in running for office. Why? It was like, did you not want to go skydiving? I didn’t even think of it. I loved public service, and I was the ultimate volunteer, the chair of the California Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: There she was, diligently working behind the scenes, until a twist of fate tested what she was made of. Nancy Pelosi never planned to run for public office, but in 1987, San Francisco’s congresswoman, Sala Burton, was dying. She was a big woman. She was, like, shrunk up on cancer. That’s John Burton, Sala’s brother-in-law, part of the family’s political operation. Let me set the scene here. The congresswoman is on her deathbed. She hasn’t yet endorsed a successor, but her endorsement is priceless. Her family has held this seat since the \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: There she was, diligently working behind the scenes, until a twist of fate tested what she was made of. Nancy Pelosi never planned to run for public office, but in 1987, San Francisco’s congresswoman, Sala Burton, was dying. She was a big woman. She was, like, shrunk up on cancer. That’s John Burton, Sala’s brother-in-law, part of the family’s political operation. Let me set the scene here. The congresswoman is on her deathbed. She hasn’t yet endorsed a successor, but her endorsement is priceless. Her family has held this seat since the \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>John Burton: She calls the group of us back to her hospital bed, where she’s just like, and she tells us, I’m not going to run again. I’d like you to support Nancy Pelosi. She starts going into Nancy Pelosi, she’s operational. She’s right on the issue. She says, she said, he said, and I walk out, she says, is she bullshitting or what?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>John Burton: She calls the group of us back to her hospital bed, where she’s just like, and she tells us, I’m not going to run again. I’d like you to support Nancy Pelosi. She starts going into Nancy Pelosi, she’s operational. She’s right on the issue. She says, she said, he said, and I walk out, she says, is she bullshitting or what?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: John Burton didn’t see Nancy Pelosi as a candidate. She was the Democratic fundraiser, organizer, behind the scenes. But Sawa saw it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>John Burton: Something else. She saw in Nancy Pelosi a tough, strong, determined, liberal, caring for people person. I mean, it was just, I walked out and I said, holy my God. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: She said to me, I’m going to ask you if you will run for my seat, and I need to know your answer now.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi told Salah she had to check with her family first. She had five kids. By 1987, only one was still living at home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: My daughter Alexandra, she says, mother, what teenage girl does not want her mother out of the house three nights of the week? Then she said, get a life.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Maybe her youngest daughter didn’t really see it, but Pelosi definitely had a life. She moved her family to San Francisco in 1969, just a couple years after the Summer of Love, a time when the city was home to artists like Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane. Pelosi was hardly a member of the counterculture, but insists she loves the Gratiful Dead. For those first few years, she had her hands full with the kids.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Maybe her youngest daughter didn’t really see it, but Pelosi definitely had a life. She moved her family to San Francisco in 1969, just a couple years after the Summer of Love, a time when the city was home to artists like Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane. Pelosi was hardly a member of the counterculture, but insists she loves the Gratiful Dead. For those first few years, she had her hands full with the kids.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Especially, I have five and six years to have to understand. Sometimes I didn’t even wash my face. Being a mom is probably the best preparation for anything because you are multitasking all of the time.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Especially, I have five and six years to have to understand. Sometimes I didn’t even wash my face. Being a mom is probably the best preparation for anything because you are multitasking all of the time.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But politics was in her DNA. She’d grown up in a political family. Her dad became the mayor of Baltimore when she was just seven. San Francisco is her husband Paul’s hometown. The year they moved back, his brother Ron was on the board of supervisors. They lived down the street from San Francisco mayor Joe Alioto.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But politics was in her DNA. She’d grown up in a political family. Her dad became the mayor of Baltimore when she was just seven. San Francisco is her husband Paul’s hometown. The year they moved back, his brother Ron was on the board of supervisors. They lived down the street from San Francisco mayor Joe Alioto.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: When people came and saw our house, they would say, oh, this is a big house. We’ll have lots of political events here.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: And you did.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And we did. How do you turn people down then? And my kids were so cute as they were getting a little bit bigger, they were making the hors d’oeuvres and serving the hors-d’oeuves and the rest of that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And we did. How do you turn people down then? And my kids were so cute as they were getting a little bit bigger, they were making the hors d’oeuvres and serving the hors-d’oeuves and the rest of that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She started taking on more political stuff, organizing volunteers, hosting candidates in her home, raising money. She became a prolific fundraiser for Democratic candidates. In 1976, California Governor Jerry Brown decided to run for president. A left coast challenge to Jimmy Carter.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She started taking on more political stuff, organizing volunteers, hosting candidates in her home, raising money. She became a prolific fundraiser for Democratic candidates. In 1976, California Governor Jerry Brown decided to run for president. A left coast challenge to Jimmy Carter.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jerry Brown: Ten years of problems in Vietnam and Watergate and all the scandals you read about in the FBI and the CIA. I think people, I think the people are ready for a new generation of leadership.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Jerry Brown: Ten years of problems in Vietnam and Watergate and all the scandals you read about in the FBI and the CIA. I think people, I think the people are ready for a new generation of leadership.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Brown entered the race pretty late in the game, but Pelosi used her Baltimore political connections to help him win Maryland’s Democratic primary. Here’s another candidate, Barbara Mikulski. Pelosi helped her win a Senate seat.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Brown entered the race pretty late in the game, but Pelosi used her Baltimore political connections to help him win Maryland’s Democratic primary. Here’s another candidate, Barbara Mikulski. Pelosi helped her win a Senate seat.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Barbara Mikulski: [00:09:44] I was out there going earring to earring with Linda Chavez. She had Ronald Reagan, and I had Nancy Pelosi.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: By 1981, Pelosi was chair of the California Democratic Party, in charge of getting Democrats elected all across the state. She had a reputation for being relentless, but she was also known for her personal touch. When Nancy talked to you, you felt like you were the center of the world. That’s Art Agnos, a former mayor of San Francisco and also, by the way, my ex-boss. I worked on his staff from 1986 to 1992. That was before I became a reporter for KQED in 1998. Anyway, Art remembers going over to Pelosi’s house for dinner back in the 70s. He was just a staffer himself back then. She invited us to her home for dinner with Leo, who was the main person. Art’s talking about Leo McCarthy. McCarthy was the speaker of the state assembly. That’s California’s version of the House of Representatives. She made sure that… \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: By 1981, Pelosi was chair of the California Democratic Party, in charge of getting Democrats elected all across the state. She had a reputation for being relentless, but she was also known for her personal touch. When Nancy talked to you, you felt like you were the center of the world. That’s Art Agnos, a former mayor of San Francisco and also, by the way, my ex-boss. I worked on his staff from 1986 to 1992. That was before I became a reporter for KQED in 1998. Anyway, Art remembers going over to Pelosi’s house for dinner back in the 70s. He was just a staffer himself back then. She invited us to her home for dinner with Leo, who was the main person. Art’s talking about Leo McCarthy. McCarthy was the speaker of the state assembly. That’s California’s version of the House of Representatives. She made sure that… \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Art Agnos: I brought my kids? No one ever said bring your kids. Pelosi even had her kids babysitting his kids, taking them upstairs to the bedroom, playing games. Her kids are taking care of my kids. I was the staff guy. She generated a kind of loyalty and love from my family that came from her attentive, thoughtful, sweet interest in us.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Art Agnos: I brought my kids? No one ever said bring your kids. Pelosi even had her kids babysitting his kids, taking them upstairs to the bedroom, playing games. Her kids are taking care of my kids. I was the staff guy. She generated a kind of loyalty and love from my family that came from her attentive, thoughtful, sweet interest in us.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is what Sala Burton saw in Nancy Pelosi, according to Art.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Sala Burton anointed Nancy Pelosi to be her successor. After she died on February 1st, there would be a primary just two months later, in April, to pick the top candidate for each party. So now the race was on. Sala’s brother-in-law, John Burton, would run Pelosi’s campaign and they would use the Burton playbook.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Sala Burton anointed Nancy Pelosi to be her successor. After she died on February 1st, there would be a primary just two months later, in April, to pick the top candidate for each party. So now the race was on. Sala’s brother-in-law, John Burton, would run Pelosi’s campaign and they would use the Burton playbook.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Phil Burton: No person is an island under themselves. We all need each other and we’ve got each other, I promise you that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s Phil Burton, John’s older brother, Sal’s husband, a chain-smoking giant in San Francisco politics. The Burton political machine specialized in something that seems pretty standard today — coalition politics. They mobilized groups other politicians overlooked. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s Phil Burton, John’s older brother, Sal’s husband, a chain-smoking giant in San Francisco politics. The Burton political machine specialized in something that seems pretty standard today — coalition politics. They mobilized groups other politicians overlooked. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Their coalition was gay. It wasn’t LGBT as it is today, but you know, it was, it wasn’t called that. Gay, African-American, labor.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Their coalition was gay. It wasn’t LGBT as it is today, but you know, it was, it wasn’t called that. Gay, African-American, labor.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Phil Burton put it a little differently.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Phil Burton: I’ve got the support of the gays and the cops as well, ain’t that a bitch? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: We ran everything at that day’s game. We were the most diverse operation politically in this city, period. And Nancy was a part of that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: We ran everything at that day’s game. We were the most diverse operation politically in this city, period. And Nancy was a part of that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s another former San Francisco mayor.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s another former San Francisco mayor.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: I’m Willie Brown, period. I was part of Phil Burton’s operation. What do you remember about her? Well, I just remember that she was a very attractive woman. Oh, very opinionated, I must say.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: I’m Willie Brown, period. I was part of Phil Burton’s operation. What do you remember about her? Well, I just remember that she was a very attractive woman. Oh, very opinionated, I must say.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She sort of had an unlikely friendship with John, who once accidentally left cocaine in the pocket of a suit he sent to the dry cleaners.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: In the drinking world. John was all the things that you wouldn’t even think Nancy would know about. But they had a friendship.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Close with the Burtons, raised campaign funds for them, but she also helped their rivals within the party.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: I’m telling you.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She had her whole body in both camps.” Her campaign chose the slogan, a voice that will be heard. Her campaign promised all the other candidates could talk, but with her connections and her experience, she would be the most effective at doing things in Congress. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She had her whole body in both camps.” Her campaign chose the slogan, a voice that will be heard. Her campaign promised all the other candidates could talk, but with her connections and her experience, she would be the most effective at doing things in Congress. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: It was not like she was going to be the next Jesse Jackson. No, Nancy was the pro who was going to help orchestrate the process.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She pulled together a team of field captains who had experience with the United Farm Workers Union to set up her ground game. An army of volunteers knocked on doors, made phone calls, staffed campaign events and signed up other volunteers to get out the vote on election day. At one point, Pelosi’s brother Tommy came to visit campaign headquarters in San Francisco. He’d been the mayor of Baltimore just like their father.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She pulled together a team of field captains who had experience with the United Farm Workers Union to set up her ground game. An army of volunteers knocked on doors, made phone calls, staffed campaign events and signed up other volunteers to get out the vote on election day. At one point, Pelosi’s brother Tommy came to visit campaign headquarters in San Francisco. He’d been the mayor of Baltimore just like their father.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And he said, Daddy sent me to make sure that you had your ground game in place. So I said, well, come see what it is.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: On sheets of butcher paper, Pelosi and her team had mapped out the strategy in true Burton fashion. They had divided up the city into factions and were seeing how they could make a winning coalition, gaming out worst-case scenarios.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Every black vote, Asian, gay vote, the lefties, if we give them every possible vote, not that they would get every possible, Nancy loses by a couple thousand votes. We have sent our troops out to get 5,000 more votes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Every black vote, Asian, gay vote, the lefties, if we give them every possible vote, not that they would get every possible, Nancy loses by a couple thousand votes. We have sent our troops out to get 5,000 more votes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Their team sent targeted mailers to different communities—Italian, African American, gay—and they quietly slipped some to Republicans. John Burton again. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>John Burton: I’d go to things with her, go to that, and just watch her. One time some group was kind of screwing over her and walked out and she says, don’t worry, we will show them how truly unimportant they are after the election.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>John Burton: I’d go to things with her, go to that, and just watch her. One time some group was kind of screwing over her and walked out and she says, don’t worry, we will show them how truly unimportant they are after the election.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But, she wasn’t going to take a single vote for granted. Before she ran for the House in 1987, Pelosi had run in one other election inside the party for chair of the Democratic National Committee. That’s the group that coordinates strategy, establishes the Democratic Party platform. She lost. And she learned a lesson she never forgot.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But, she wasn’t going to take a single vote for granted. Before she ran for the House in 1987, Pelosi had run in one other election inside the party for chair of the Democratic National Committee. That’s the group that coordinates strategy, establishes the Democratic Party platform. She lost. And she learned a lesson she never forgot.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I had done everything in the party and worked with many people. People that I had worked with forever were making terrible statements about me.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi said she was the target of all sorts of attacks, including sexist ones. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: So when I ran for Congress, and people would call me and say, did you see what someone so said? I said, yeah, don’t bother me with that. If you’re concerned about that, get on the phone and make some calls, walk some precincts, but don’t think I care about what somebody else says. And I would not have realized that had I not seen how Democrats treated Democrats when I run for the other office.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: So when I ran for Congress, and people would call me and say, did you see what someone so said? I said, yeah, don’t bother me with that. If you’re concerned about that, get on the phone and make some calls, walk some precincts, but don’t think I care about what somebody else says. And I would not have realized that had I not seen how Democrats treated Democrats when I run for the other office.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Democrats against Democrats, a knife fight in a phone booth. That’s what Pelosi was entering in the primary. Against a motivated opponent fighting for a city reeling from a deadly epidemic.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Democrats against Democrats, a knife fight in a phone booth. That’s what Pelosi was entering in the primary. Against a motivated opponent fighting for a city reeling from a deadly epidemic.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Where did it go?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is an old news clip from 1987. A singer charms a crowd with a famous Judy Garland cover.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Politics in San Francisco, a fundraiser in a cabaret that caters to gays. At this event, the candidate is gay as well, Democrat Harry Britt.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Politics in San Francisco, a fundraiser in a cabaret that caters to gays. At this event, the candidate is gay as well, Democrat Harry Britt.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The bar is packed with gay and lesbian supporters. The sign at the door reads, We’re just wild about Harry Britt.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: While he would be a political outsider elsewhere in the country with his progressive agenda, he fits in easily in San Francisco. Liberal credentials are essential. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: While he would be a political outsider elsewhere in the country with his progressive agenda, he fits in easily in San Francisco. Liberal credentials are essential. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt was a San Francisco supervisor and Nancy Pelosi’s toughest rival. He was soft-spoken, with a serious tone, kind of an intellectual, a little socially awkward. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt was a San Francisco supervisor and Nancy Pelosi’s toughest rival. He was soft-spoken, with a serious tone, kind of an intellectual, a little socially awkward. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: I’m from Texas and I come from a family of Southerners. I was a Methodist minister for a major part of my life and that was\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That was Britt in a TV interview. He never intended to run for office. Like Pelosi, he was more behind the scenes. In 1977, he volunteered to help elect Harvey Milk to the board of supervisors. Milk was the first openly gay person elected in California.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That was Britt in a TV interview. He never intended to run for office. Like Pelosi, he was more behind the scenes. In 1977, he volunteered to help elect Harvey Milk to the board of supervisors. Milk was the first openly gay person elected in California.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Harvey Milk: There are 15 million lesbian and gay men waiting to hear your voice! We are coming out of the closet! When are you going to come out of yours?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The next year, Harvey Milk was assassinated, along with the mayor at the time, George Moscone. The killer was Dan White. He had been on the board of supervisors with Milk. A year before he died, Harvey milk made a recording. A list of people he would want to replace him if he were assassinated. And who was on that list?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The next year, Harvey Milk was assassinated, along with the mayor at the time, George Moscone. The killer was Dan White. He had been on the board of supervisors with Milk. A year before he died, Harvey milk made a recording. A list of people he would want to replace him if he were assassinated. And who was on that list?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Harvey Milk: The third choice I would have would be Harry Britt, who most people don’t know, but I’ve watched Harry, and Harry’s been involved with three campaigns, and I’ve watched Harry grow and grow and grow, and a very, very dedicated and strong person. One who will not be pushed around. One who understands where the movement is and where it must go. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Harvey Milk: The third choice I would have would be Harry Britt, who most people don’t know, but I’ve watched Harry, and Harry’s been involved with three campaigns, and I’ve watched Harry grow and grow and grow, and a very, very dedicated and strong person. One who will not be pushed around. One who understands where the movement is and where it must go. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt again.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: Harvey’s gone, but all of us who cared about him and the things that he stood for realize now that it’s our job.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: The murders unified, made us cohesive, and that translated into political muscle. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: The murders unified, made us cohesive, and that translated into political muscle. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Tom Amiano was active in the gay rights movement, friends with Harvey Milk, and Harry.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: Harvey was very charismatic and out there, and Harry was just a steady, even presence.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: In the early 80s, the community was still reeling from the assassinations, and then another deadly threat emerged. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: AIDS was rampant. Every day somebody died. Every day you saw somebody with purple splotches or you’d say, hey, what happened to Michael? He was supposed to show. You didn’t hear, he died.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: I moved to San Francisco in 1981, just as some gay men started coming down with some unusual symptoms. Thrush or yeast infections in the throat that wouldn’t go away, fungal infections in the lungs, lesions on the skin, weight loss. Doctors didn’t know why, but soon they were dying. As the casualties mounted, so did the fear. There was no test for the virus yet. We didn’t even know it was a virus. Many of us were worried, afraid we had this ticking time bomb inside of us. But there was nothing to do but be careful and wait. It escalated quickly. By 1984, it became common to see people with full blown AIDS emaciated, looking old beyond their years, covered with purple splotches, Kaposi sarcoma. We’d see men who looked to be at death’s door, slowly walking or shuffling around the Castro neighborhood. There were funerals, lots of funerals, many for people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. It was a slow motion disaster. But it seemed no one in Washington cared. Harry Britt again. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: I moved to San Francisco in 1981, just as some gay men started coming down with some unusual symptoms. Thrush or yeast infections in the throat that wouldn’t go away, fungal infections in the lungs, lesions on the skin, weight loss. Doctors didn’t know why, but soon they were dying. As the casualties mounted, so did the fear. There was no test for the virus yet. We didn’t even know it was a virus. Many of us were worried, afraid we had this ticking time bomb inside of us. But there was nothing to do but be careful and wait. It escalated quickly. By 1984, it became common to see people with full blown AIDS emaciated, looking old beyond their years, covered with purple splotches, Kaposi sarcoma. We’d see men who looked to be at death’s door, slowly walking or shuffling around the Castro neighborhood. There were funerals, lots of funerals, many for people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. It was a slow motion disaster. But it seemed no one in Washington cared. Harry Britt again. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: So I think it’s legitimate for us to point out that the people who care the most about AIDS and certainly the gay community which cares in a passionate way about AIDS is very united behind my candidacy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: So I think it’s legitimate for us to point out that the people who care the most about AIDS and certainly the gay community which cares in a passionate way about AIDS is very united behind my candidacy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: These were the stakes of the 87th Special Election. In that Congressional race, many saw Harry Britt, not Pelosi, as the champion the gay community needed in Washington. It was also a chance to make history.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: These were the stakes of the 87th Special Election. In that Congressional race, many saw Harry Britt, not Pelosi, as the champion the gay community needed in Washington. It was also a chance to make history.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: It was beyond who’s Harry Britt, it was beyond whose Nancy Pelosi. It was that we might get an openly gay member of Congress.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s Gwen Craig. She came to San Francisco in 1975. She worked closely with Milk and would become involved in Harry Britt’s campaign.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: The nonchalance, it seemed, of Congress and the executive administrations just was maddening.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The CDC first published an article describing five young gay patients in Los Angeles whose immune systems suddenly failed in 1981. But President Reagan didn’t publicly address the crisis for four years, only then because he was asked about it. By 1987, nearly 2,000 San Franciscans had died of AIDS. I remember a lot of people in the gay community thought that Pelosi, a wealthy, straight, white woman, wasn’t the best person to fight for them in Washington. The Brit campaign didn’t hold back. Here’s one ad they ran.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The CDC first published an article describing five young gay patients in Los Angeles whose immune systems suddenly failed in 1981. But President Reagan didn’t publicly address the crisis for four years, only then because he was asked about it. By 1987, nearly 2,000 San Franciscans had died of AIDS. I remember a lot of people in the gay community thought that Pelosi, a wealthy, straight, white woman, wasn’t the best person to fight for them in Washington. The Brit campaign didn’t hold back. Here’s one ad they ran.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival Ad: Inspector Riley, Missing Person Squad. Yeah, we’ve heard that report. No, we haven’t seen Nancy Pelosi. That’s why she’s a missing person. Nobody has seen Nancy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Archival Ad: Inspector Riley, Missing Person Squad. Yeah, we’ve heard that report. No, we haven’t seen Nancy Pelosi. That’s why she’s a missing person. Nobody has seen Nancy. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt’s campaign sent out mailers calling her a dilettante.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Most people didn’t know what that meant.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi again. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And they said, does that mean you’re a debut talent? Aren’t you old to be a debut? They did one piece.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: Call that referred to Nancy Pelosi as party girl because she came from being head of the Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Gwen Craig again, Lesbian Activist. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Gwen Craig again, Lesbian Activist. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: I didn’t like that piece at all.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: What was it that you didn’t like about it?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: Well, I thought it was rather misogynist. You know, I though it was sexist. I thought that it belittled her in a way because of her gender. So I became then uncomfortable with my support of Harry for a while after that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: Well, I thought it was rather misogynist. You know, I though it was sexist. I thought that it belittled her in a way because of her gender. So I became then uncomfortable with my support of Harry for a while after that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: They warned us it would be brutal, and it would a bloodbath, and I’d be sorry I ever got in the race, but I wasn’t frightened by any of that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: They warned us it would be brutal, and it would a bloodbath, and I’d be sorry I ever got in the race, but I wasn’t frightened by any of that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi did something in 1987 that she rarely does. She agreed to a televised debate a week before the election, right here at KQED. Pelosi was the front-runner. She had a lot to lose.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi did something in 1987 that she rarely does. She agreed to a televised debate a week before the election, right here at KQED. Pelosi was the front-runner. She had a lot to lose.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Party insider, runs ahead in recent polls. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Party insider, runs ahead in recent polls. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt was close on her heels. In addition to being part of the gay movement, he was a democratic socialist. He believed in challenging corporate power structures, and once tried to rein in wealthy landlords with commercial rent control.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt was close on her heels. In addition to being part of the gay movement, he was a democratic socialist. He believed in challenging corporate power structures, and once tried to rein in wealthy landlords with commercial rent control.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: A gay activist who is to the left of his chief opponents. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: A gay activist who is to the left of his chief opponents. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Just before the debate, Pelosi’s campaign threatened to pull out. Her staff was worried the other candidates would gang up on her.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Just before the debate, Pelosi’s campaign threatened to pull out. Her staff was worried the other candidates would gang up on her.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Calm down a little bit.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Calm down a little bit.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It was a free for all, with all 14 candidates left, right and center. It made for great live television.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It was a free for all, with all 14 candidates left, right and center. It made for great live television.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Mr. Zur, this is not a forum for you just to make a speech. At this point in this discussion, we are—you’ve got a lot of words in.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Mr. Zur, this is not a forum for you just to make a speech. At this point in this discussion, we are—you’ve got a lot of words in.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The moderators asked if her critics were right, that she was out of touch. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The moderators asked if her critics were right, that she was out of touch. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: But there are a lot of people who seem to be disturbed by, I guess, where you come from. The idea of your wealth and your connections among the well-to-do. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: But there are a lot of people who seem to be disturbed by, I guess, where you come from. The idea of your wealth and your connections among the well-to-do. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: And Harry Britt questioned whether she could be trusted to fight for everyday people.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: And Harry Britt questioned whether she could be trusted to fight for everyday people.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: How can you be an effective advocate for consumer issues like keeping interest rates low on credit cards when you’ve gotten money from banks and savings and loan associations? How can really fight to get oil companies to clean up toxic waste when you got money from Chevron and Getty and all these people? I challenge Nancy Pelosi who has never had to stand up to that kind of pressure.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: How can you be an effective advocate for consumer issues like keeping interest rates low on credit cards when you’ve gotten money from banks and savings and loan associations? How can really fight to get oil companies to clean up toxic waste when you got money from Chevron and Getty and all these people? I challenge Nancy Pelosi who has never had to stand up to that kind of pressure.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Based on available campaign finance records, we couldn’t verify if Pelosi took money from Chevron for her campaign. But members of the influential Getty family, her family friends who made their fortune in oil, did donate $5,000 to her congressional campaign. But Pelosi pointed her finger and returned fire.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Based on available campaign finance records, we couldn’t verify if Pelosi took money from Chevron for her campaign. But members of the influential Getty family, her family friends who made their fortune in oil, did donate $5,000 to her congressional campaign. But Pelosi pointed her finger and returned fire.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Harry, have you taken any PAC money? Have you taken a PAC money. I have not taken any money. Any PAC money, have any you taken PAC money \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Harry, have you taken any PAC money? Have you taken a PAC money. I have not taken any money. Any PAC money, have any you taken PAC money \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt’s campaign was mostly grassroots funded, but Pelosi? Her campaign spent around a million dollars, more than the other 13 candidates combined. Pelosi also self-funded, giving more than $200,000 to her own campaign.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt’s campaign was mostly grassroots funded, but Pelosi? Her campaign spent around a million dollars, more than the other 13 candidates combined. Pelosi also self-funded, giving more than $200,000 to her own campaign.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: How can she relate to people like me, a single parent, working mother, or somebody else?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: How can she relate to people like me, a single parent, working mother, or somebody else?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Another candidate, San Francisco City Supervisor Carol Rue Silver, jumped in. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Another candidate, San Francisco City Supervisor Carol Rue Silver, jumped in. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Problems are different. She’s never met a payroll. She has never had to worry about child care. She has not had a kid in a public school. She never worried about the things that worry most of the people in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Problems are different. She’s never met a payroll. She has never had to worry about child care. She has not had a kid in a public school. She never worried about the things that worry most of the people in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Let’s let Nancy answer.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Let’s let Nancy answer.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: First of all, my ability to fund my own campaign to the extent that I can and to raise money over 1,500 contributors to my campaign gives me an independence that none of my candidates, I believe, share, especially the four supervisors who were reported this week to have received $1,000 each from the Embarcadero Center and then voted to give them a street this week. So if you want to talk about independence, let’s talk about Independence.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: First of all, my ability to fund my own campaign to the extent that I can and to raise money over 1,500 contributors to my campaign gives me an independence that none of my candidates, I believe, share, especially the four supervisors who were reported this week to have received $1,000 each from the Embarcadero Center and then voted to give them a street this week. So if you want to talk about independence, let’s talk about Independence.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi knew that she needed to do something to neutralize the idea that she was beholden to wealthy interests. So she counterpunched by saying to her opponents, well, you’re not exactly pure either. According to federal campaign fundraising data, each of the four city supervisors did receive a thousand dollar contribution from the CEO of the Embarcadero Center. That’s a set of high-rise office buildings downtown. We couldn’t verify the claim that he got a favor in return. But she’s doing something here by implying that. She’s undercutting them. It’s a classic campaign tactic, pointing out the hypocrisy in your opponent’s charge. After the primary, that same CEO gave $1,000 to Pelosi’s campaign for Congress. That’s politics. Pelosi has always argued that the PAC money she took was from Democratic allies who cared about regular people. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi knew that she needed to do something to neutralize the idea that she was beholden to wealthy interests. So she counterpunched by saying to her opponents, well, you’re not exactly pure either. According to federal campaign fundraising data, each of the four city supervisors did receive a thousand dollar contribution from the CEO of the Embarcadero Center. That’s a set of high-rise office buildings downtown. We couldn’t verify the claim that he got a favor in return. But she’s doing something here by implying that. She’s undercutting them. It’s a classic campaign tactic, pointing out the hypocrisy in your opponent’s charge. After the primary, that same CEO gave $1,000 to Pelosi’s campaign for Congress. That’s politics. Pelosi has always argued that the PAC money she took was from Democratic allies who cared about regular people. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Labor unions, from the Nurses Association, from organizations dedicated to the election of women to Congress.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Labor unions, from the Nurses Association, from organizations dedicated to the election of women to Congress.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: To her, raising money was just a means to an end. This was the late 80s. Money was changing politics as we knew it, and Pelosi was going to do everything she needed to do to win. You didn’t take any of that personally.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: To her, raising money was just a means to an end. This was the late 80s. Money was changing politics as we knew it, and Pelosi was going to do everything she needed to do to win. You didn’t take any of that personally.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: No, I mean it’s a campaign. What do you expect?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: No, I mean it’s a campaign. What do you expect?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival: There was a special election here in San Francisco today to fill a congressional seat left empty by the death of congresswoman Sala Burton.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Archival: There was a special election here in San Francisco today to fill a congressional seat left empty by the death of congresswoman Sala Burton.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: As the election got close, Pelosi had dropped in the polls, so election day was a nail-biter. Britt needed a big turnout in the predominantly gay Castro neighborhood, and he got that. But in the end, he could not overcome Pelosi’s ground game.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: As the election got close, Pelosi had dropped in the polls, so election day was a nail-biter. Britt needed a big turnout in the predominantly gay Castro neighborhood, and he got that. But in the end, he could not overcome Pelosi’s ground game.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival: And here in San Francisco, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi defeated Harry Britt, a city supervisor who is gay.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Archival: And here in San Francisco, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi defeated Harry Britt, a city supervisor who is gay.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Under rules for special elections like this one, the top contender from each party would move on to a runoff in June. Britt was out. Gwen Craig and Tom Amiano again. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Under rules for special elections like this one, the top contender from each party would move on to a runoff in June. Britt was out. Gwen Craig and Tom Amiano again. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: People took it pretty hard. They were really disappointed, because I think a lot of people thought, we’re gonna actually get an openly gay person going to Congress. That’s going to be such a huge step forward.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: People took it pretty hard. They were really disappointed, because I think a lot of people thought, we’re gonna actually get an openly gay person going to Congress. That’s going to be such a huge step forward.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: We’re all in a little bit of despair. You know, who is this woman? What does she know?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: We’re all in a little bit of despair. You know, who is this woman? What does she know?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: After she won the primary, Pelosi called a meeting with AIDS activists. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: It wasn’t milquetoast ones, you know, it was angry ones. And they met with her. And I’m not saying that the reaction was 100% positive. I know that she shed some tears and I’m sure that they were sincere. But to the hard-bitten, we didn’t want tears.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: It wasn’t milquetoast ones, you know, it was angry ones. And they met with her. And I’m not saying that the reaction was 100% positive. I know that she shed some tears and I’m sure that they were sincere. But to the hard-bitten, we didn’t want tears.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt wasn’t the only person who understood the magnitude of the crisis. Pelosi also knew people who died of the disease, family friends, political staffers, people in her community.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt wasn’t the only person who understood the magnitude of the crisis. Pelosi also knew people who died of the disease, family friends, political staffers, people in her community.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: People were dying and I was visiting people in the hospital that we were close to and they were robust young men out there and then they were like a bag of bones in the hospitals, a bag a bones.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: People were dying and I was visiting people in the hospital that we were close to and they were robust young men out there and then they were like a bag of bones in the hospitals, a bag a bones.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: During the election, Pelosi had also promised action on AIDS.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival: We want to stop spending money on a big defense budget and instead address it to the most important crisis of our time, the AIDS crisis.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Archival: We want to stop spending money on a big defense budget and instead address it to the most important crisis of our time, the AIDS crisis.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: In the runoff, Pelosi easily defeated the Republican. She was on her way to Congress.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: In the runoff, Pelosi easily defeated the Republican. She was on her way to Congress.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: Without objection, the gentlewoman from California is reckoned.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: Without objection, the gentlewoman from California is reckoned.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: Thank you very much for your kind remarks and to all of you. It’s a very sentimental day for me as you can see.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: Thank you very much for your kind remarks and to all of you. It’s a very sentimental day for me as you can see.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When a new member of Congress is first sworn in, it’s kind of rare for them to say anything of note, let alone something controversial. But on that day, in June of 1987, Pelosi, sounding a little nervous, surprised everyone.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When a new member of Congress is first sworn in, it’s kind of rare for them to say anything of note, let alone something controversial. But on that day, in June of 1987, Pelosi, sounding a little nervous, surprised everyone.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: And now we must take the leadership, of course, in the crisis of AIDS, and I look forward to working with you on that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: And now we must take the leadership, of course, in the crisis of AIDS, and I look forward to working with you on that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Now Brit’s supporters would have to put their faith in the person who defeated him. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: On a foggy morning in 1989, protesters unfurled a banner across the Golden Gate Bridge reading AIDS equals genocide, silence equals death, calling out the newly elected president and former Vice President George H.W. Bush.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: On a foggy morning in 1989, protesters unfurled a banner across the Golden Gate Bridge reading AIDS equals genocide, silence equals death, calling out the newly elected president and former Vice President George H.W. Bush.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: They blocked traffic for more than an hour. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I was one of the persons that sat on the bridge on January 31st, 1989. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: It was so cold.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Since 1988 Mike Shriver had been organizing with act up a direct action group focused on AIDS.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: During Pelosi’s first full term in Congress, the deaths continued unabated. There was no vaccine, no cure, limited treatment. So people took to the bridge.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: It’s one of the proudest moments of my life, actually. And as we were being pulled one person at a time to being arrested, my mentor, he said to me, if I could feel the way that I feel right now, I will live forever. I will survive the epidemic.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: By 1988, Shriver and his peers had started focusing on how to change policy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: This whole cadre of ACT UP individuals taught themselves how to become experts in research, experts in policy, experts in drug development. I happened to go down the track of the public health policy stuff.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: He remembers a meeting with Nancy Pelosi. He was there with someone who needed access to an experimental AIDS treatment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I got to sit there in the room and he talked to Mrs. Pelosi and he said, I didn’t vote for you, but you’re my representative and I expect that you’ll take care of me. And she looked him deadpan and said, absolutely, that is my job.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It was our purpose. That’s just the way it was. It wasn’t like, I really hope you will do this. This is absolutely urgent that you do this.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When I asked Pelosi about her support for AIDS funding, she was very matter of fact about it. To her, it seemed like a no-brainer.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Was not prepared for discrimination. Now these people were not anti-gay, they just thought the rest of the room was.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: For sure, Pelosi had solid allies, like California Congressmembers Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman from Los Angeles. But they faced opposition because of the stigma of AIDS. And then activists had an idea.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Cleve Jones came to my house with Art Agnos when I’m a newly elected member of Congress and says he has this idea that people will make a quilt for their loved ones. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Cleve Jones was a young activist who had worked for Harvey Milk. He later went on to mobilize the community to respond to HIV AIDS and co-created what became known as the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Tens of thousands of panels, handcrafted with care, by mothers and fathers, brothers, co-workers, friends, lovers and spouses, sewn into three by six foot panels. Panels for everyone, from musicians like Freddie Mercury of Queen and Sylvester. To political activists and artists like Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe, to others who lived quieter lives but whose death crushed those who loved them. Jones had a vision. He wanted to spread huge sections of the quilt out on the National Mall in Washington.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Cleve Jones was a young activist who had worked for Harvey Milk. He later went on to mobilize the community to respond to HIV AIDS and co-created what became known as the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Tens of thousands of panels, handcrafted with care, by mothers and fathers, brothers, co-workers, friends, lovers and spouses, sewn into three by six foot panels. Panels for everyone, from musicians like Freddie Mercury of Queen and Sylvester. To political activists and artists like Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe, to others who lived quieter lives but whose death crushed those who loved them. Jones had a vision. He wanted to spread huge sections of the quilt out on the National Mall in Washington.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Enormous quilts, enormous, big as the mall. Pelosi was on board to help bring the quilt to DC, but there was a hitch.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: The National Park Service says, we’ll give you a corner where you can have a few patches. Can you imagine? So I said, well, they’re certainly not gonna do that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: The National Park Service says, we’ll give you a corner where you can have a few patches. Can you imagine? So I said, well, they’re certainly not gonna do that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She asked the National Park Service, why can’t we display the full quilt? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It’s gonna kill the grass, but why? Because if you have something on the grass for more than 20 minutes, it kills the grass.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi had an idea.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: We have hundreds of people, we can pick it up every 20 minutes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The National Park Service caved, and on October 11, 1987, the AIDS quilt was first displayed in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It was so beautiful.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival – AIDS memorial quilt: Bill Cathcart. Bob Greenwood.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Archival – AIDS memorial quilt: Bill Cathcart. Bob Greenwood.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Across the National Mall, the names of the fallen echoed as Cleve Jones read some of them. I was there then.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Archival – AIDS memorial quilt: Douglas Lowery.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi was one of the few members of Congress there. Even then, she was laser-focused. She told a reporter for GayUSA…\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Now, the first day I… \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Became a member, I became a co-sponsor of the Gay Civil Rights Bill, Ted Weiss’ bill, and we have a few pieces of legislation regarding AIDS, more money for AIDS, confidentiality, non-discrimination.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: At a time when HIV AIDS still felt like a death sentence, Nancy Pelosi helped change the prognosis. Pelosi co-authored the Ryan White Care Act. Ryan White was a teenager from Indiana who had hemophilia. He got AIDS from a medical treatment. After his diagnosis, his school banned him from attending class. To some lawmakers, White was someone they could help without worrying about attacks by religious zealots who thought AIDS was God’s punishment of gay men and IV drug users. Pelosi understood this. Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos again.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: At a time when HIV AIDS still felt like a death sentence, Nancy Pelosi helped change the prognosis. Pelosi co-authored the Ryan White Care Act. Ryan White was a teenager from Indiana who had hemophilia. He got AIDS from a medical treatment. After his diagnosis, his school banned him from attending class. To some lawmakers, White was someone they could help without worrying about attacks by religious zealots who thought AIDS was God’s punishment of gay men and IV drug users. Pelosi understood this. Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos again.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Art Agnos: She looked like the all-American woman. She was, she is beautiful. She had lovely kids, she had a handsome husband. What the hell is she doing with these weird people? When she showed up, she looks like us. How come she’s talking like that? And I think that gave her a entree to discussing AIDS, gay people, all the kinds of issues that are important to us in San Francisco. They listened because she looked like them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Art Agnos: She looked like the all-American woman. She was, she is beautiful. She had lovely kids, she had a handsome husband. What the hell is she doing with these weird people? When she showed up, she looks like us. How come she’s talking like that? And I think that gave her a entree to discussing AIDS, gay people, all the kinds of issues that are important to us in San Francisco. They listened because she looked like them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The Ryan White Care Act passed in 1990. It created a financial safety net for people with HIV who were underinsured. She also helped push through a bill that allocated funds that people with HIV could use for housing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The Ryan White Care Act passed in 1990. It created a financial safety net for people with HIV who were underinsured. She also helped push through a bill that allocated funds that people with HIV could use for housing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I got to go with her, and I’m sitting there watching her work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s the conference between the House and Senate that divides up government funding. Mike Shriver remembers one instance.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s the conference between the House and Senate that divides up government funding. Mike Shriver remembers one instance.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: The very first year that she got the most significant increase for HIV prevention was a year that a senator from Pennsylvania looked for some money for substance abuse treatment that he needed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: The very first year that she got the most significant increase for HIV prevention was a year that a senator from Pennsylvania looked for some money for substance abuse treatment that he needed.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That Senator, Arlen Specter, promised Nancy Pelosi he would restore her funding for HIV programs the next year. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: He made the commitment to her and he did it. For her, you know, you live up to your word. And if you don’t remember your word, I’ll tell you what you told me. And I thought, that’s magic.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: He made the commitment to her and he did it. For her, you know, you live up to your word. And if you don’t remember your word, I’ll tell you what you told me. And I thought, that’s magic.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Mike Shriver lives with HIV.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I relied on Ryan White funding for my care and for my dental care and had I not had that, I would not have had access to the drugs that eventually had become what continue to keep me alive and keep me in remission with my HIV disease.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I relied on Ryan White funding for my care and for my dental care and had I not had that, I would not have had access to the drugs that eventually had become what continue to keep me alive and keep me in remission with my HIV disease.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: So you’re saying she’s the reason you’re still here?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I absolutely believe that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: There’s this one thing Mike told me that really stuck with me. He was telling me about a text exchange he had with Nancy after a health emergency in 2022.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I had just emailed her the day before talking about finishing my IVIG infusion, which took five consecutive days, which just flattened me out. And she wrote back, Michael, loved getting your promising report. Love you, Nancy. A couple of emojis and then thank you. I’m so lucky, I am so privileged. I do not ever underestimate, like I don’t take this for granted. Nancy is not really good about receiving compliments. It’s not her favorite thing to experience and I’ve had to do it a couple of times and realize I know this is gonna piss you off or it’s gonna make you a little bit mad but I need you to hear how important it is of what you’ve done for us. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I had just emailed her the day before talking about finishing my IVIG infusion, which took five consecutive days, which just flattened me out. And she wrote back, Michael, loved getting your promising report. Love you, Nancy. A couple of emojis and then thank you. I’m so lucky, I am so privileged. I do not ever underestimate, like I don’t take this for granted. Nancy is not really good about receiving compliments. It’s not her favorite thing to experience and I’ve had to do it a couple of times and realize I know this is gonna piss you off or it’s gonna make you a little bit mad but I need you to hear how important it is of what you’ve done for us. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When Pelosi ran in 1987, her slogan was a voice that will be heard. And when Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: San Francisco for giving me the privilege.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She brought it back home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: When I ran, my slogan was, a voice that will be heard. I think they’ve heard us. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It took nearly 20 years, but Pelosi was on a path to becoming the first woman ever elected House Speaker. Next time on the speaker.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I don’t see a plan here to win.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rahm Emanuel: If you win, you get to set the table. Nancy Pelosi’s path to the top. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. Co-reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound design by Christopher Beale. Additional mixing by Brendan Willard. Fact checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Sussman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor-in-chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. \u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#Transcript\">View Full Episode Transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Before her historic Speakership, even before she got to the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi worked for years outside the spotlight as an official in the California Democratic party while she raised her family in San Francisco. That was until 1987, when tragic circumstances led her to do something she hadn’t considered before: run for Congress. Her first hurdle? A city in crisis and a motivated opponent from a community impacted by a deadly epidemic.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Transcript\">Episode Transcript \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Hi, I’m Scott Schafer. I’ve been covering politics for nearly 30 years, especially here in San Francisco. As a reporter, I’ve watched a lot of people rise from San Francisco into the national arena. Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Dianne Feinstein. But no one has fascinated me more than Nancy Pelosi, trailblazer, power broker, lightning rod, first woman ever speaker of the house. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Tonight on Express, the campaigning has been intense. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: I remember watching her way back in 1987. That was the first time she was running for Congress here in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: We do have 14 candidates here, so can we keep this discussion on an even scale? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is from a televised debate hosted here at KQED, the public media outlet where I work. All the candidates are sitting on risers, lots of poofy, teased hair, wide-framed glasses, and Pelosi is in the front row, perfect blowout, wearing a purple blazer. [00:00:57][15.8]\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I think this is the most hilarious thing that a woman can come into this district from outside of it and buy this election. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: [00:01:04] Pelosi’s critics, mostly other Democrats, call her a wealthy socialite. They say she’s the establishment pick. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: And what we have is we have, in this election, somebody saying, the machine backs me, I’ve got a million bucks, I don’t live in your district, I have never met many of your slobs, but I’m going to be your new leader because I got bucks and I’m powerful. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: How can she relate to people like me a single-parent working mother? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Let’s let Nancy talk. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I don’t think you have to be sick to be a doctor or poor to understand the problems of the poor. I have spent my life committed to the ideals of the Democratic Party. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It’s an interesting moment, Pelosi turns their argument around, saying that she’s the right candidate precisely because she’s been working behind the scenes. She knows the game inside out. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: I believe that I will be the best and most effective representative for San Francisco because I have worked in that arena for 25 years, both at the local, state, and national level. I have work with the members of Congress long before they went to Congress and long since. I have persuaded them on votes, both by one-on-one persuasion and by mobilizing in their districts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Last year, Pelosi announced she was retiring. As a journalist, I started thinking about how she went from being relatively unknown to one of the most formidable politicians of her generation, and about the role she’s played leading up to this political moment, a moment where faith in the Democratic Party and public trust in U.S. Institutions are at their lowest in decades. And she agreed to talk, a series of five interviews. Okay, we’re gonna put you right there I wear the red light.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Unfortunately, this is not visual because I got off the plane. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Our first interview, she had just gotten off a cross-country flight, she was also nursing a cold, but I knew how to get things started on the right foot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I’m glad I’m seeing that. I’m going to go right into it, okay? I think I should test them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Nancy Pelosi is kind of a tough interview. I’ve done it many times before, usually about a political issue. She’s always warm and gracious until you ask something that annoys her and then she lets you know it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I don’t feel that way at all. I don’t even know why you’re asking that question. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She can be loyal to her talking points. Frustrating. How do you want people to remember your legacy?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Not so fast on the legacy. We have to win the house, which we will do. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She’ll completely deny the premise of your question. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: No, I didn’t oppose it for many years. I posed it when they suggested it, and then Kalka said they won it and I supported it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But I figured this is the time, right now, before she leaves office, to really reckon with the force that is Nancy Pelosi. From KQED, this is The Speaker, how Nancy Pelosi changed the face of power. This is the inside story of her rise and what she did when she got there, as told by the people who were in the rooms where it all happened.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Anna Eshoo: Nancy always would talk about winning and how to win. I said, Mr. President, we’re so excited about doing health care, but understand this, it’s going to be carpet bombing, take no prisoners, you name it, total warfare.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rahm Emanuel: She is comfortable with power and exercising it. Nancy exists in the arena. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mick Mulvaney: I’ve often described it with a little bit tongue-in-cheek, because I’m not going to accuse anybody. I want to make clear here that I’m not slandering anybody, I’m not accusing anybody of any criminal activity, but she reminded me of a mafia boss. That’s how she ran the place.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: They were going to get a bullet in my effing brain. You know, they used the F word a lot about me throughout the whole thing. They were gonna hang Vice President Gallows for him.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Today, how Nancy Pelosi got to Congress. She had been the ultimate insider, working for years as a high-up official in the Democratic Party, forged by San Francisco politics. But also an outsider, a woman, a mother of five kids, behind the scenes. Had you not ever considered running with her?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I had zero interest in running for office. Why? It was like, did you not want to go skydiving? I didn’t even think of it. I loved public service, and I was the ultimate volunteer, the chair of the California Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: There she was, diligently working behind the scenes, until a twist of fate tested what she was made of. Nancy Pelosi never planned to run for public office, but in 1987, San Francisco’s congresswoman, Sala Burton, was dying. She was a big woman. She was, like, shrunk up on cancer. That’s John Burton, Sala’s brother-in-law, part of the family’s political operation. Let me set the scene here. The congresswoman is on her deathbed. She hasn’t yet endorsed a successor, but her endorsement is priceless. Her family has held this seat since the \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Burton: She calls the group of us back to her hospital bed, where she’s just like, and she tells us, I’m not going to run again. I’d like you to support Nancy Pelosi. She starts going into Nancy Pelosi, she’s operational. She’s right on the issue. She says, she said, he said, and I walk out, she says, is she bullshitting or what?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: John Burton didn’t see Nancy Pelosi as a candidate. She was the Democratic fundraiser, organizer, behind the scenes. But Sawa saw it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Burton: Something else. She saw in Nancy Pelosi a tough, strong, determined, liberal, caring for people person. I mean, it was just, I walked out and I said, holy my God. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: She said to me, I’m going to ask you if you will run for my seat, and I need to know your answer now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi told Salah she had to check with her family first. She had five kids. By 1987, only one was still living at home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: My daughter Alexandra, she says, mother, what teenage girl does not want her mother out of the house three nights of the week? Then she said, get a life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Maybe her youngest daughter didn’t really see it, but Pelosi definitely had a life. She moved her family to San Francisco in 1969, just a couple years after the Summer of Love, a time when the city was home to artists like Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane. Pelosi was hardly a member of the counterculture, but insists she loves the Gratiful Dead. For those first few years, she had her hands full with the kids.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Especially, I have five and six years to have to understand. Sometimes I didn’t even wash my face. Being a mom is probably the best preparation for anything because you are multitasking all of the time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But politics was in her DNA. She’d grown up in a political family. Her dad became the mayor of Baltimore when she was just seven. San Francisco is her husband Paul’s hometown. The year they moved back, his brother Ron was on the board of supervisors. They lived down the street from San Francisco mayor Joe Alioto.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: When people came and saw our house, they would say, oh, this is a big house. We’ll have lots of political events here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: And you did.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And we did. How do you turn people down then? And my kids were so cute as they were getting a little bit bigger, they were making the hors d’oeuvres and serving the hors-d’oeuves and the rest of that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She started taking on more political stuff, organizing volunteers, hosting candidates in her home, raising money. She became a prolific fundraiser for Democratic candidates. In 1976, California Governor Jerry Brown decided to run for president. A left coast challenge to Jimmy Carter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jerry Brown: Ten years of problems in Vietnam and Watergate and all the scandals you read about in the FBI and the CIA. I think people, I think the people are ready for a new generation of leadership.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Brown entered the race pretty late in the game, but Pelosi used her Baltimore political connections to help him win Maryland’s Democratic primary. Here’s another candidate, Barbara Mikulski. Pelosi helped her win a Senate seat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Barbara Mikulski: [00:09:44] I was out there going earring to earring with Linda Chavez. She had Ronald Reagan, and I had Nancy Pelosi.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: By 1981, Pelosi was chair of the California Democratic Party, in charge of getting Democrats elected all across the state. She had a reputation for being relentless, but she was also known for her personal touch. When Nancy talked to you, you felt like you were the center of the world. That’s Art Agnos, a former mayor of San Francisco and also, by the way, my ex-boss. I worked on his staff from 1986 to 1992. That was before I became a reporter for KQED in 1998. Anyway, Art remembers going over to Pelosi’s house for dinner back in the 70s. He was just a staffer himself back then. She invited us to her home for dinner with Leo, who was the main person. Art’s talking about Leo McCarthy. McCarthy was the speaker of the state assembly. That’s California’s version of the House of Representatives. She made sure that… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Art Agnos: I brought my kids? No one ever said bring your kids. Pelosi even had her kids babysitting his kids, taking them upstairs to the bedroom, playing games. Her kids are taking care of my kids. I was the staff guy. She generated a kind of loyalty and love from my family that came from her attentive, thoughtful, sweet interest in us.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is what Sala Burton saw in Nancy Pelosi, according to Art.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Sala Burton anointed Nancy Pelosi to be her successor. After she died on February 1st, there would be a primary just two months later, in April, to pick the top candidate for each party. So now the race was on. Sala’s brother-in-law, John Burton, would run Pelosi’s campaign and they would use the Burton playbook.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Phil Burton: No person is an island under themselves. We all need each other and we’ve got each other, I promise you that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s Phil Burton, John’s older brother, Sal’s husband, a chain-smoking giant in San Francisco politics. The Burton political machine specialized in something that seems pretty standard today — coalition politics. They mobilized groups other politicians overlooked. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Their coalition was gay. It wasn’t LGBT as it is today, but you know, it was, it wasn’t called that. Gay, African-American, labor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Phil Burton put it a little differently.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Phil Burton: I’ve got the support of the gays and the cops as well, ain’t that a bitch? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: We ran everything at that day’s game. We were the most diverse operation politically in this city, period. And Nancy was a part of that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s another former San Francisco mayor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: I’m Willie Brown, period. I was part of Phil Burton’s operation. What do you remember about her? Well, I just remember that she was a very attractive woman. Oh, very opinionated, I must say.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She sort of had an unlikely friendship with John, who once accidentally left cocaine in the pocket of a suit he sent to the dry cleaners.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: In the drinking world. John was all the things that you wouldn’t even think Nancy would know about. But they had a friendship.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Close with the Burtons, raised campaign funds for them, but she also helped their rivals within the party.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: I’m telling you.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She had her whole body in both camps.” Her campaign chose the slogan, a voice that will be heard. Her campaign promised all the other candidates could talk, but with her connections and her experience, she would be the most effective at doing things in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Willie Brown: It was not like she was going to be the next Jesse Jackson. No, Nancy was the pro who was going to help orchestrate the process.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She pulled together a team of field captains who had experience with the United Farm Workers Union to set up her ground game. An army of volunteers knocked on doors, made phone calls, staffed campaign events and signed up other volunteers to get out the vote on election day. At one point, Pelosi’s brother Tommy came to visit campaign headquarters in San Francisco. He’d been the mayor of Baltimore just like their father.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And he said, Daddy sent me to make sure that you had your ground game in place. So I said, well, come see what it is.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: On sheets of butcher paper, Pelosi and her team had mapped out the strategy in true Burton fashion. They had divided up the city into factions and were seeing how they could make a winning coalition, gaming out worst-case scenarios.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Every black vote, Asian, gay vote, the lefties, if we give them every possible vote, not that they would get every possible, Nancy loses by a couple thousand votes. We have sent our troops out to get 5,000 more votes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Their team sent targeted mailers to different communities—Italian, African American, gay—and they quietly slipped some to Republicans. John Burton again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Burton: I’d go to things with her, go to that, and just watch her. One time some group was kind of screwing over her and walked out and she says, don’t worry, we will show them how truly unimportant they are after the election.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: But, she wasn’t going to take a single vote for granted. Before she ran for the House in 1987, Pelosi had run in one other election inside the party for chair of the Democratic National Committee. That’s the group that coordinates strategy, establishes the Democratic Party platform. She lost. And she learned a lesson she never forgot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I had done everything in the party and worked with many people. People that I had worked with forever were making terrible statements about me.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi said she was the target of all sorts of attacks, including sexist ones. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: So when I ran for Congress, and people would call me and say, did you see what someone so said? I said, yeah, don’t bother me with that. If you’re concerned about that, get on the phone and make some calls, walk some precincts, but don’t think I care about what somebody else says. And I would not have realized that had I not seen how Democrats treated Democrats when I run for the other office.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Democrats against Democrats, a knife fight in a phone booth. That’s what Pelosi was entering in the primary. Against a motivated opponent fighting for a city reeling from a deadly epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Where did it go?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: This is an old news clip from 1987. A singer charms a crowd with a famous Judy Garland cover.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Politics in San Francisco, a fundraiser in a cabaret that caters to gays. At this event, the candidate is gay as well, Democrat Harry Britt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The bar is packed with gay and lesbian supporters. The sign at the door reads, We’re just wild about Harry Britt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: While he would be a political outsider elsewhere in the country with his progressive agenda, he fits in easily in San Francisco. Liberal credentials are essential. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt was a San Francisco supervisor and Nancy Pelosi’s toughest rival. He was soft-spoken, with a serious tone, kind of an intellectual, a little socially awkward. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: I’m from Texas and I come from a family of Southerners. I was a Methodist minister for a major part of my life and that was\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That was Britt in a TV interview. He never intended to run for office. Like Pelosi, he was more behind the scenes. In 1977, he volunteered to help elect Harvey Milk to the board of supervisors. Milk was the first openly gay person elected in California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harvey Milk: There are 15 million lesbian and gay men waiting to hear your voice! We are coming out of the closet! When are you going to come out of yours?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The next year, Harvey Milk was assassinated, along with the mayor at the time, George Moscone. The killer was Dan White. He had been on the board of supervisors with Milk. A year before he died, Harvey milk made a recording. A list of people he would want to replace him if he were assassinated. And who was on that list?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harvey Milk: The third choice I would have would be Harry Britt, who most people don’t know, but I’ve watched Harry, and Harry’s been involved with three campaigns, and I’ve watched Harry grow and grow and grow, and a very, very dedicated and strong person. One who will not be pushed around. One who understands where the movement is and where it must go. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: Harvey’s gone, but all of us who cared about him and the things that he stood for realize now that it’s our job.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: The murders unified, made us cohesive, and that translated into political muscle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Tom Amiano was active in the gay rights movement, friends with Harvey Milk, and Harry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: Harvey was very charismatic and out there, and Harry was just a steady, even presence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: In the early 80s, the community was still reeling from the assassinations, and then another deadly threat emerged. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: AIDS was rampant. Every day somebody died. Every day you saw somebody with purple splotches or you’d say, hey, what happened to Michael? He was supposed to show. You didn’t hear, he died.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: I moved to San Francisco in 1981, just as some gay men started coming down with some unusual symptoms. Thrush or yeast infections in the throat that wouldn’t go away, fungal infections in the lungs, lesions on the skin, weight loss. Doctors didn’t know why, but soon they were dying. As the casualties mounted, so did the fear. There was no test for the virus yet. We didn’t even know it was a virus. Many of us were worried, afraid we had this ticking time bomb inside of us. But there was nothing to do but be careful and wait. It escalated quickly. By 1984, it became common to see people with full blown AIDS emaciated, looking old beyond their years, covered with purple splotches, Kaposi sarcoma. We’d see men who looked to be at death’s door, slowly walking or shuffling around the Castro neighborhood. There were funerals, lots of funerals, many for people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. It was a slow motion disaster. But it seemed no one in Washington cared. Harry Britt again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: So I think it’s legitimate for us to point out that the people who care the most about AIDS and certainly the gay community which cares in a passionate way about AIDS is very united behind my candidacy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: These were the stakes of the 87th Special Election. In that Congressional race, many saw Harry Britt, not Pelosi, as the champion the gay community needed in Washington. It was also a chance to make history.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: It was beyond who’s Harry Britt, it was beyond whose Nancy Pelosi. It was that we might get an openly gay member of Congress.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s Gwen Craig. She came to San Francisco in 1975. She worked closely with Milk and would become involved in Harry Britt’s campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: The nonchalance, it seemed, of Congress and the executive administrations just was maddening.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The CDC first published an article describing five young gay patients in Los Angeles whose immune systems suddenly failed in 1981. But President Reagan didn’t publicly address the crisis for four years, only then because he was asked about it. By 1987, nearly 2,000 San Franciscans had died of AIDS. I remember a lot of people in the gay community thought that Pelosi, a wealthy, straight, white woman, wasn’t the best person to fight for them in Washington. The Brit campaign didn’t hold back. Here’s one ad they ran.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival Ad: Inspector Riley, Missing Person Squad. Yeah, we’ve heard that report. No, we haven’t seen Nancy Pelosi. That’s why she’s a missing person. Nobody has seen Nancy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt’s campaign sent out mailers calling her a dilettante.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Most people didn’t know what that meant.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: And they said, does that mean you’re a debut talent? Aren’t you old to be a debut? They did one piece.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: Call that referred to Nancy Pelosi as party girl because she came from being head of the Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Gwen Craig again, Lesbian Activist. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: I didn’t like that piece at all.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: What was it that you didn’t like about it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: Well, I thought it was rather misogynist. You know, I though it was sexist. I thought that it belittled her in a way because of her gender. So I became then uncomfortable with my support of Harry for a while after that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: They warned us it would be brutal, and it would a bloodbath, and I’d be sorry I ever got in the race, but I wasn’t frightened by any of that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi did something in 1987 that she rarely does. She agreed to a televised debate a week before the election, right here at KQED. Pelosi was the front-runner. She had a lot to lose.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Party insider, runs ahead in recent polls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Harry Britt was close on her heels. In addition to being part of the gay movement, he was a democratic socialist. He believed in challenging corporate power structures, and once tried to rein in wealthy landlords with commercial rent control.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: A gay activist who is to the left of his chief opponents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Just before the debate, Pelosi’s campaign threatened to pull out. Her staff was worried the other candidates would gang up on her.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Calm down a little bit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It was a free for all, with all 14 candidates left, right and center. It made for great live television.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Mr. Zur, this is not a forum for you just to make a speech. At this point in this discussion, we are—you’ve got a lot of words in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The moderators asked if her critics were right, that she was out of touch. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: But there are a lot of people who seem to be disturbed by, I guess, where you come from. The idea of your wealth and your connections among the well-to-do. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: And Harry Britt questioned whether she could be trusted to fight for everyday people.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Harry Britt: How can you be an effective advocate for consumer issues like keeping interest rates low on credit cards when you’ve gotten money from banks and savings and loan associations? How can really fight to get oil companies to clean up toxic waste when you got money from Chevron and Getty and all these people? I challenge Nancy Pelosi who has never had to stand up to that kind of pressure.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Based on available campaign finance records, we couldn’t verify if Pelosi took money from Chevron for her campaign. But members of the influential Getty family, her family friends who made their fortune in oil, did donate $5,000 to her congressional campaign. But Pelosi pointed her finger and returned fire.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Harry, have you taken any PAC money? Have you taken a PAC money. I have not taken any money. Any PAC money, have any you taken PAC money \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt’s campaign was mostly grassroots funded, but Pelosi? Her campaign spent around a million dollars, more than the other 13 candidates combined. Pelosi also self-funded, giving more than $200,000 to her own campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: How can she relate to people like me, a single parent, working mother, or somebody else?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Another candidate, San Francisco City Supervisor Carol Rue Silver, jumped in. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Problems are different. She’s never met a payroll. She has never had to worry about child care. She has not had a kid in a public school. She never worried about the things that worry most of the people in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Let’s let Nancy answer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: First of all, my ability to fund my own campaign to the extent that I can and to raise money over 1,500 contributors to my campaign gives me an independence that none of my candidates, I believe, share, especially the four supervisors who were reported this week to have received $1,000 each from the Embarcadero Center and then voted to give them a street this week. So if you want to talk about independence, let’s talk about Independence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi knew that she needed to do something to neutralize the idea that she was beholden to wealthy interests. So she counterpunched by saying to her opponents, well, you’re not exactly pure either. According to federal campaign fundraising data, each of the four city supervisors did receive a thousand dollar contribution from the CEO of the Embarcadero Center. That’s a set of high-rise office buildings downtown. We couldn’t verify the claim that he got a favor in return. But she’s doing something here by implying that. She’s undercutting them. It’s a classic campaign tactic, pointing out the hypocrisy in your opponent’s charge. After the primary, that same CEO gave $1,000 to Pelosi’s campaign for Congress. That’s politics. Pelosi has always argued that the PAC money she took was from Democratic allies who cared about regular people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: Labor unions, from the Nurses Association, from organizations dedicated to the election of women to Congress.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: To her, raising money was just a means to an end. This was the late 80s. Money was changing politics as we knew it, and Pelosi was going to do everything she needed to do to win. You didn’t take any of that personally.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: No, I mean it’s a campaign. What do you expect?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival: There was a special election here in San Francisco today to fill a congressional seat left empty by the death of congresswoman Sala Burton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: As the election got close, Pelosi had dropped in the polls, so election day was a nail-biter. Britt needed a big turnout in the predominantly gay Castro neighborhood, and he got that. But in the end, he could not overcome Pelosi’s ground game.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival: And here in San Francisco, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi defeated Harry Britt, a city supervisor who is gay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Under rules for special elections like this one, the top contender from each party would move on to a runoff in June. Britt was out. Gwen Craig and Tom Amiano again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gwenn Craig: People took it pretty hard. They were really disappointed, because I think a lot of people thought, we’re gonna actually get an openly gay person going to Congress. That’s going to be such a huge step forward.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: We’re all in a little bit of despair. You know, who is this woman? What does she know?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: After she won the primary, Pelosi called a meeting with AIDS activists. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tom Ammiano: It wasn’t milquetoast ones, you know, it was angry ones. And they met with her. And I’m not saying that the reaction was 100% positive. I know that she shed some tears and I’m sure that they were sincere. But to the hard-bitten, we didn’t want tears.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Britt wasn’t the only person who understood the magnitude of the crisis. Pelosi also knew people who died of the disease, family friends, political staffers, people in her community.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: People were dying and I was visiting people in the hospital that we were close to and they were robust young men out there and then they were like a bag of bones in the hospitals, a bag a bones.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: During the election, Pelosi had also promised action on AIDS.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival: We want to stop spending money on a big defense budget and instead address it to the most important crisis of our time, the AIDS crisis.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: In the runoff, Pelosi easily defeated the Republican. She was on her way to Congress.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: Without objection, the gentlewoman from California is reckoned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: Thank you very much for your kind remarks and to all of you. It’s a very sentimental day for me as you can see.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When a new member of Congress is first sworn in, it’s kind of rare for them to say anything of note, let alone something controversial. But on that day, in June of 1987, Pelosi, sounding a little nervous, surprised everyone.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival of Pelosi’s Swearing In: And now we must take the leadership, of course, in the crisis of AIDS, and I look forward to working with you on that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Now Brit’s supporters would have to put their faith in the person who defeated him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: On a foggy morning in 1989, protesters unfurled a banner across the Golden Gate Bridge reading AIDS equals genocide, silence equals death, calling out the newly elected president and former Vice President George H.W. Bush.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: They blocked traffic for more than an hour. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I was one of the persons that sat on the bridge on January 31st, 1989. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: It was so cold.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Since 1988 Mike Shriver had been organizing with act up a direct action group focused on AIDS.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: During Pelosi’s first full term in Congress, the deaths continued unabated. There was no vaccine, no cure, limited treatment. So people took to the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: It’s one of the proudest moments of my life, actually. And as we were being pulled one person at a time to being arrested, my mentor, he said to me, if I could feel the way that I feel right now, I will live forever. I will survive the epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: By 1988, Shriver and his peers had started focusing on how to change policy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: This whole cadre of ACT UP individuals taught themselves how to become experts in research, experts in policy, experts in drug development. I happened to go down the track of the public health policy stuff.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: He remembers a meeting with Nancy Pelosi. He was there with someone who needed access to an experimental AIDS treatment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I got to sit there in the room and he talked to Mrs. Pelosi and he said, I didn’t vote for you, but you’re my representative and I expect that you’ll take care of me. And she looked him deadpan and said, absolutely, that is my job.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It was our purpose. That’s just the way it was. It wasn’t like, I really hope you will do this. This is absolutely urgent that you do this.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When I asked Pelosi about her support for AIDS funding, she was very matter of fact about it. To her, it seemed like a no-brainer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Was not prepared for discrimination. Now these people were not anti-gay, they just thought the rest of the room was.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: For sure, Pelosi had solid allies, like California Congressmembers Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman from Los Angeles. But they faced opposition because of the stigma of AIDS. And then activists had an idea.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Cleve Jones came to my house with Art Agnos when I’m a newly elected member of Congress and says he has this idea that people will make a quilt for their loved ones. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Cleve Jones was a young activist who had worked for Harvey Milk. He later went on to mobilize the community to respond to HIV AIDS and co-created what became known as the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Tens of thousands of panels, handcrafted with care, by mothers and fathers, brothers, co-workers, friends, lovers and spouses, sewn into three by six foot panels. Panels for everyone, from musicians like Freddie Mercury of Queen and Sylvester. To political activists and artists like Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe, to others who lived quieter lives but whose death crushed those who loved them. Jones had a vision. He wanted to spread huge sections of the quilt out on the National Mall in Washington.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Enormous quilts, enormous, big as the mall. Pelosi was on board to help bring the quilt to DC, but there was a hitch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED 1987 Debate Package: The National Park Service says, we’ll give you a corner where you can have a few patches. Can you imagine? So I said, well, they’re certainly not gonna do that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She asked the National Park Service, why can’t we display the full quilt? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It’s gonna kill the grass, but why? Because if you have something on the grass for more than 20 minutes, it kills the grass.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi had an idea.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: We have hundreds of people, we can pick it up every 20 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The National Park Service caved, and on October 11, 1987, the AIDS quilt was first displayed in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: It was so beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival – AIDS memorial quilt: Bill Cathcart. Bob Greenwood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Across the National Mall, the names of the fallen echoed as Cleve Jones read some of them. I was there then.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Archival – AIDS memorial quilt: Douglas Lowery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Pelosi was one of the few members of Congress there. Even then, she was laser-focused. She told a reporter for GayUSA…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Now, the first day I… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: Became a member, I became a co-sponsor of the Gay Civil Rights Bill, Ted Weiss’ bill, and we have a few pieces of legislation regarding AIDS, more money for AIDS, confidentiality, non-discrimination.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: At a time when HIV AIDS still felt like a death sentence, Nancy Pelosi helped change the prognosis. Pelosi co-authored the Ryan White Care Act. Ryan White was a teenager from Indiana who had hemophilia. He got AIDS from a medical treatment. After his diagnosis, his school banned him from attending class. To some lawmakers, White was someone they could help without worrying about attacks by religious zealots who thought AIDS was God’s punishment of gay men and IV drug users. Pelosi understood this. Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos again.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Art Agnos: She looked like the all-American woman. She was, she is beautiful. She had lovely kids, she had a handsome husband. What the hell is she doing with these weird people? When she showed up, she looks like us. How come she’s talking like that? And I think that gave her a entree to discussing AIDS, gay people, all the kinds of issues that are important to us in San Francisco. They listened because she looked like them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The Ryan White Care Act passed in 1990. It created a financial safety net for people with HIV who were underinsured. She also helped push through a bill that allocated funds that people with HIV could use for housing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I got to go with her, and I’m sitting there watching her work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That’s the conference between the House and Senate that divides up government funding. Mike Shriver remembers one instance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: The very first year that she got the most significant increase for HIV prevention was a year that a senator from Pennsylvania looked for some money for substance abuse treatment that he needed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: That Senator, Arlen Specter, promised Nancy Pelosi he would restore her funding for HIV programs the next year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: He made the commitment to her and he did it. For her, you know, you live up to your word. And if you don’t remember your word, I’ll tell you what you told me. And I thought, that’s magic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: Mike Shriver lives with HIV.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I relied on Ryan White funding for my care and for my dental care and had I not had that, I would not have had access to the drugs that eventually had become what continue to keep me alive and keep me in remission with my HIV disease.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: So you’re saying she’s the reason you’re still here?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I absolutely believe that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: There’s this one thing Mike told me that really stuck with me. He was telling me about a text exchange he had with Nancy after a health emergency in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mike Shriver: I had just emailed her the day before talking about finishing my IVIG infusion, which took five consecutive days, which just flattened me out. And she wrote back, Michael, loved getting your promising report. Love you, Nancy. A couple of emojis and then thank you. I’m so lucky, I am so privileged. I do not ever underestimate, like I don’t take this for granted. Nancy is not really good about receiving compliments. It’s not her favorite thing to experience and I’ve had to do it a couple of times and realize I know this is gonna piss you off or it’s gonna make you a little bit mad but I need you to hear how important it is of what you’ve done for us. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: When Pelosi ran in 1987, her slogan was a voice that will be heard. And when Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: San Francisco for giving me the privilege.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: She brought it back home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: When I ran, my slogan was, a voice that will be heard. I think they’ve heard us. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: It took nearly 20 years, but Pelosi was on a path to becoming the first woman ever elected House Speaker. Next time on the speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nancy Pelosi: I don’t see a plan here to win.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rahm Emanuel: If you win, you get to set the table. Nancy Pelosi’s path to the top. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Barbara Boxer: One of those days on the plane, we were talking about, what is your dream in politics? And she said, I want to be Speaker of the House.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: You had to have some chutzpah at that point in her career to say I want to be speaker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Barbara Boxer: Chutzpah doesn’t begin to describe it. It was impossible.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scott Shafer: The Speaker is a production of KQED in San Francisco and distributed by NPR. It’s hosted and reported by me, Scott Shafer. Co-reported and produced by Ariella Markowitz. It’s edited by Padmini Raghunath. Final mix and sound design by Christopher Beale. Additional mixing by Brendan Willard. Fact checking by Mark Betancourt. Additional editing from Anna Sussman and Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts. Original theme song composed by Cedric Wilson. Additional music from APM. Maha Sanad is KQED’s podcast engagement producer. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s editor-in-chief. Special thanks to our partners from the Oral History Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television, and radio artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. \u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Pelosi's Shadow Hangs Over The Race to Replace Her",
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"content": "\u003cp>Former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12006391/barbara-boxer-is-retired-but-still-deeply-engaged-in-politics\">U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer\u003c/a> is endorsing Connie Chan in the race to represent San Francisco in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The endorsement adds another legendary female politician to Chan’s list of supporters, which also includes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084132/nancy-pelosi-endorses-san-francisco-supervisor-connie-chan-for-congress\">House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi\u003c/a>, whose upcoming \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062796/nancy-pelosi-leaves-congress-after-38-years-defining-generations-of-democratic-power\">retirement\u003c/a> has opened one of the most competitive elections for San Francisco’s seat in Congress in decades. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If ever we needed a fighter and coalition builder who puts working families first, it is now. Connie is that fighter,” Boxer said in a statement. Now retired, Boxer has remained active in politics, including supporting Democratic candidates like Will Rollins, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2024, and former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s brief bid for state treasurer the same year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11855572\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1832x1374.jpg 1832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-632x474.jpg 632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-536x402.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, speaks during a press conference calling for the creation of an independent military justice system to deal with sexual harassment and assault in the military, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 6, 2014. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Democrat served as a county supervisor in Marin before going on to represent parts of the San Francisco Bay Area in Congress from 1983 to 1993 — one of only 23 women at the time in the House of Representatives. She then served in the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 2017.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Although we have made great progress with now 125 women representatives out of 435, there’s still a lot of work to do. Connie will ensure that gap doesn’t grow,” Boxer said. “She will make us proud.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan, a progressive Democrat with wide support from labor organizations, is running against state Sen. Scott Wiener, a former San Francisco supervisor known for his work around housing legislation and LGBTQ rights at the local and state level. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener, a more moderate Democrat, has nabbed support from labor leader Dolores Huerta, the majority of the city’s current Board of Supervisors and other Democratic elected officials, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Treasurer Fiona Ma and Rep. Sam Liccardo, the former San José mayor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan meanwhile has found a powerful ally in Pelosi, who has thrown her fundraising muscle and political expertise behind her campaign. Recently, Pelosi \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/teampelosi/status/2085488807152136474?s=46\">sharply criticized\u003c/a> one of Wiener’s campaign moves to create an AI-powered chatbot mimicking Chan. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power,” Pelosi said about the chatbot. “We should not have to now fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener’s team later took down the AI chatbot, acknowledging that it “clearly missed the mark.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“My campaign created ConnieChan.ai as a parody to draw attention to my opponent’s record of delay and obstruction around housing, public transit and other critical needs,” Wiener said in a statement following criticism that the tool also mocked Chan’s accent. “Innovation means trying new things, and it also means being honest when something doesn’t land the way you intended.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Saturday, the state senator held a “Women for Scott” rally with elected officials including East Bay Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, San Francisco Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and SF Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung, who have all endorsed Wiener. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener may have more name recognition, from his pro-housing supporters to national Republicans who have attacked his LGBTQ legislation, but recent polling suggests the race is competitive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan said in a statement that she was “deeply grateful” for Boxer’s support. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her career has shown what it means to fight for working families and bring local government experience directly to Washington,” Chan said. “I’m honored to follow in Senator Boxer’s footsteps and look forward to carrying that fight to Congress.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chan, a progressive Democrat with wide support from labor organizations, is running against state Sen. Scott Wiener, a former San Francisco supervisor known for his work around housing legislation and LGBTQ rights at the local and state level. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power,” Pelosi said about the chatbot. “We should not have to now fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“My campaign created ConnieChan.ai as a parody to draw attention to my opponent’s record of delay and obstruction around housing, public transit and other critical needs,” Wiener said in a statement following criticism that the tool also mocked Chan’s accent. “Innovation means trying new things, and it also means being honest when something doesn’t land the way you intended.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On Saturday, the state senator held a “Women for Scott” rally with elected officials including East Bay Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, San Francisco Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and SF Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung, who have all endorsed Wiener. \u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Chan has also found a powerful ally in Nancy Pelosi, whose retirement has opened up the first competitive race for the city’s House seat in decades.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12006391/barbara-boxer-is-retired-but-still-deeply-engaged-in-politics\">U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer\u003c/a> is endorsing Connie Chan in the race to represent San Francisco in Congress. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The endorsement adds another legendary female politician to Chan’s list of supporters, which also includes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084132/nancy-pelosi-endorses-san-francisco-supervisor-connie-chan-for-congress\">House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi\u003c/a>, whose upcoming \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062796/nancy-pelosi-leaves-congress-after-38-years-defining-generations-of-democratic-power\">retirement\u003c/a> has opened one of the most competitive elections for San Francisco’s seat in Congress in decades. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If ever we needed a fighter and coalition builder who puts working families first, it is now. Connie is that fighter,” Boxer said in a statement. Now retired, Boxer has remained active in politics, including supporting Democratic candidates like Will Rollins, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2024, and former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s brief bid for state treasurer the same year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11855572\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1832x1374.jpg 1832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-632x474.jpg 632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/8749_transform-536x402.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, speaks during a press conference calling for the creation of an independent military justice system to deal with sexual harassment and assault in the military, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 6, 2014. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Democrat served as a county supervisor in Marin before going on to represent parts of the San Francisco Bay Area in Congress from 1983 to 1993 — one of only 23 women at the time in the House of Representatives. She then served in the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 2017.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Although we have made great progress with now 125 women representatives out of 435, there’s still a lot of work to do. Connie will ensure that gap doesn’t grow,” Boxer said. “She will make us proud.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan, a progressive Democrat with wide support from labor organizations, is running against state Sen. Scott Wiener, a former San Francisco supervisor known for his work around housing legislation and LGBTQ rights at the local and state level. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener, a more moderate Democrat, has nabbed support from labor leader Dolores Huerta, the majority of the city’s current Board of Supervisors and other Democratic elected officials, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Treasurer Fiona Ma and Rep. Sam Liccardo, the former San José mayor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan meanwhile has found a powerful ally in Pelosi, who has thrown her fundraising muscle and political expertise behind her campaign. Recently, Pelosi \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/teampelosi/status/2085488807152136474?s=46\">sharply criticized\u003c/a> one of Wiener’s campaign moves to create an AI-powered chatbot mimicking Chan. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power,” Pelosi said about the chatbot. “We should not have to now fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener’s team later took down the AI chatbot, acknowledging that it “clearly missed the mark.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“My campaign created ConnieChan.ai as a parody to draw attention to my opponent’s record of delay and obstruction around housing, public transit and other critical needs,” Wiener said in a statement following criticism that the tool also mocked Chan’s accent. “Innovation means trying new things, and it also means being honest when something doesn’t land the way you intended.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Saturday, the state senator held a “Women for Scott” rally with elected officials including East Bay Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, San Francisco Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and SF Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung, who have all endorsed Wiener. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wiener may have more name recognition, from his pro-housing supporters to national Republicans who have attacked his LGBTQ legislation, but recent polling suggests the race is competitive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan said in a statement that she was “deeply grateful” for Boxer’s support. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her career has shown what it means to fight for working families and bring local government experience directly to Washington,” Chan said. “I’m honored to follow in Senator Boxer’s footsteps and look forward to carrying that fight to Congress.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are still many ballots left to count, but from the governor’s race to local tax measures and the race to replace Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives, we sit down with KQED’s politics and government correspondent \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"mailto:gmarzorati@kqed.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\" data-rich-links='{\"per_n\":\"Guy Marzorati\",\"per_e\":\"gmarzorati@kqed.org\",\"type\":\"person\"}'>Guy Marzorati\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">about the results of the primary so far.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/elections/results/california\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED: California Primary Election Results \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC8080199858&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Episode transcript\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:36] I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donna Hemmila \u003c/strong>[00:00:47] This election was agonizing for me. I held my ballot back until like the very last minute, expecting something weird gonna happen at the last minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chirag Hebbar \u003c/strong>[00:00:59] I think with both Gavin Newsom and Pelosi leaving, I think it’s a critical election, which is why I wanted to show up to the polls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leslie Serrano \u003c/strong>[00:01:08] All the different lieutenant governor and, you know, superintendent and everything that we need to vote on, it’s all important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:18] And now we wait for all the ballots to be counted after Tuesday’s primary election. California voters were asked to choose from a long list of candidates for governor and other statewide offices. And here in the Bay, we also voted on everything from congressional races to local ballot measures. Today, we’re gonna talk about what we know about the results of this primary so far. And what it tells us about what to expect in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:58] Well, Guy, another day, another primary. I’m actually kind of curious if you have a sort of like election day or election week routine that you abide by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:02:13] Have to do something outdoors during the day before the votes come in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:17] Nice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:19] Guy Marzorati is a politics and government correspondent for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:02:24] This year, I knew it was gonna be a long night, so I switched up a little bit and did a Vietnamese coffee late in the afternoon. Both days, both election day and the day after, I almost just took off and flew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:35] Right. I was going to say that’s like jet fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:02:38] Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:44] Well, how did this election night compare to previous election nights and primaries, I guess, specifically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:02:51] Right now I think we’re trending towards somewhere in the ballpark of 40% turnout, which doesn’t sound great, but actually for a governor primary in California is pretty good. You look back at the last few primaries we’ve had for governor, and the turnout has trended in the mid-30s to the low-30, sometimes even in the high 20% turnout. So getting to around 40% is really encouraging. Some of that probably has to do with the national environment. Democrats are the more motivated party across the country. California is a heavily democratic state, but you may have to attribute some of this. To the fact that there was a really competitive governor’s race that voters felt like they could make a real difference in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:38] Well, let’s get into the governor’s race, probably the biggest race in this primary for California voters. Lots of twists and turns in this race and an insane number of names on the ballot, but only the top two are advancing to November. So what do we know so far? Anything surprising in that race?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:03:58] Yeah, I think, you know, on this election night, uniquely in the governor’s race, we went in really not knowing like what combination of results would end up in the top two. We had three candidates most likely competing for two spots in the Governor’s election, Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton. But we went into Tuesday night not knowing, OK, which two of those three is going to make it into the top to any scenario seemed on the table. Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton right now are leading as the two candidates with Democrat Tom Steyer trailing. The question is, as more votes continue to be counted, can Tom Styer move into the top two?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:43] Are the results so far, surprising?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:04:45] Maybe not surprising from like a June 1st perspective, shocking from a April 1st, perspective. Like if you were to, you know, rip Van Winkle from April to election day to see Xavier Becerra who had been really far down in the polls for much of this campaign, have this whole resurgence after former Congress member Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race, would be surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Xavier Becerra \u003c/strong>[00:05:10] Like my family, LA is the starting line for millions of success stories across this state. And here in Hollywood’s hometown, we love a good underdog story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:05:26] When Eric Swalwell dropped out, Becerra didn’t have any big California players behind him from an elected official standpoint. He didn’t any of the big unions endorsing him at that point. He didn’t have a ton of money at that time. It all really came together just in those few weeks after Swalwell got out of the race and kind of completely reshuffled the dynamics of this election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:50] And Republican Steve Hilton has been polling at the top for most of his campaign. What do you make of the race that he’s run and also how he would do in a November election?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:06:02] Yeah, Hilton was really able to consolidate support from California Republicans after he won the endorsement of President Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Hilton \u003c/strong>[00:06:11] Obviously we’re very encouraged by these results, nothing is final yet, but it does look as if change is coming to California and that is good news for everyone, every small business, every working family, everyone who wants to see our state set back on track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:06:27] Now, if he is able to make it into the top two in November, it’s a really difficult race for him. And that same endorsement of Trump’s that helped him win over Republicans is going to be a huge liability for him in a state where Trump is still very unpopular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:49] And I mean, in a race full of surprises, are we out of the woods yet with this one? Or is it still possible that, I don’t know, some other crazy thing happens in this race?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:07:02] Yeah, no, I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet as far as twists and turns. There is a possibility, I’m not sure how to put odds on this possibility, but there is a possibility that Tom Steyer gains vote share as ballots continue to be counted and creates a Democrat on Democrat general election. We’ll know a lot more on Friday night when many more counties are going to be reporting their results. Look, we’ve never had two Democrats in a general election for governor of California. That would be a race that is even hard to imagine how it would even play out between Becerra and Steyer, but it’s something that is still potentially on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:50] Well, let’s zoom into some of the more local races, Guy, starting with the race to replace Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives. It looks like State Senator Scott Weiner and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan are advancing to the general election. Any surprises there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:08:09] Yeah, so in that race, we did see Scott Wiener, San Francisco State Senator, finish first in the primary as expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Wiener \u003c/strong>[00:08:17] And we’re going to continue to build a massive coalition in every neighborhood of this city, every generation, every background, every community in the greatest city on planet Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:08:36] The real surprise, and I think we are all watching, what would be the outcome between second and third? We saw Connie Chan, a supervisor in San Francisco, finish second with, as of now, basically double the support of Shoikot Chakrabarti, who is a former advisor to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s sitting in third place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Connie Chan \u003c/strong>[00:08:55] This tonight is a start for many many people to see the billionaires all not just in San Francisco but across the nation we’re coming for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:09:10] And I think you really have to go back to the endorsement from former speaker, Nancy Pelosi of Connie Chan late in this race back in May, at least according to the public poll we had from the San Francisco Chronicle, Scott Wiener was leading this primary by good margin. And then Connie Chan, the San Francisco supervisor and Chakrabarti were pretty neck and neck. At that point, Chakrabarti, you know, he was spending 8 million, 9 million dollars. And Connie Chan had this endorsement from Pelosi. And I compared to, remember like a few years ago, people were saying, would you rather have dinner with Jay-Z or $500,000? I think this was like the political version. Would you rather have $9 million to spend or an endorsement from Nancy Pelosi? And I think we found out the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:08] Coming up, how some local ballot measures are doing. By the way, if you appreciate these deep dives into Bay Area news, consider becoming a KQED member. We can’t do this work without your support, so join your Bay Area neighbors and become a member today. KQED.org/donate. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:37] I want to talk, Guy, about local tax measures. There seem to be several of these kinds of local tax measures around the Bay Area in cities that, as we know, have been really struggling with their budgets. So it looks like some of them are likely to pass and others seem to in trouble. I know you are following the hotel tax in San Jose, which seems likely to past. Can you remind us what that is meant to help fund?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:12:04] So measure A in San Jose, an increase in the hotel tax from 10% to 12%, that’s going to fund the city general fund. San Jose goes into a final vote on the city budget next week with a $50 million shortfall projected for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget balancing plan that the mayor Matt Mahan and city leaders have put together relies on measure a passing. They basically warned if this measure doesn’t pass, you’re going to see Sunday library hours cut. You’re going to see the downtown police foot patrol be eliminated. So really what measure a is, is doing is kind of helping the city stay afloat in a year where there is a budget shortfall and it looks like measure a will pass. And I think the fact that it’s a hotel tax paid by people who are coming to stay in San Jose, not maybe necessarily living in San Jose helped this measure politically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:58] Yeah, very interesting because on the other hand, I know you were also following a parcel tax in Oakland that seems like it might not pass. Can you tell us about that one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:13:10] Yeah, so this is Measure E, $192 a year parcel property tax that would raise about, you know, 35-ish million dollars a year. This was a billed really by Barbara Lee, City Unions, again, as a way to bring in money when the city is on kind of uncertain fiscal footing. Unlike Measure A in San Jose, there was like a campaign against Measure E in Oakland. You had realtors spend money. More moderate political groups spend money in order to defeat Measure E. And right now the initial results have the measure failing. Still a lot of votes to be counted. Traditionally, what we’ve seen in Alameda County is they count votes through Wednesday, through Thursday, through Friday. Then they post that result late Friday and it’s a lot votes. And you saw that in the mayor’s race when Barbara Lee won. She was trailing on election day all of a sudden a huge dump of votes on Friday, she wins the race, she’ll be hoping for something similar to happen with Measure E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:15] So TBD there, but I mean, it’s interesting that there were a few other tax measures on the ballot across the Bay, Prop D, the overpaid CEO tax in San Francisco, Measure B in Contra Costa County, to help fund health care there in the wake of federal funding cuts to MediCal and Medicaid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:14:40] That one surprised me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:40] Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:14:41] That one really, that one in Contra Costa really surprised me because basically that was a copy and paste campaign from what we saw in Santa Clara in 2025, which was Trump and House Republicans passed these big cuts to Medicaid, what we call Medi-Cal in California. County health systems are going to be really hit by that. And so in Santa Clare County, they said, look, we need to punch back against Trump. We need to increase local sales tax in order to help hospitals. And you saw both in Contra Costa County and in LA County as well, basically the same campaigns. Let’s frame this as we took this big hit from Trump, let’s find a way to restore funding locally. And in both Contra Costa and LA, those measures are not doing well. What does that speak to? Is that diminishing appetite for those kinds of taxes, diminishing returns on that specific kind of message? There are clearly like intricacies in each of campaigns and how they were run. But that definitely surprised me. I thought that was a winning formula in Santa Clara that could be replicated and doesn’t seem to be the case in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:46] There’s also Prop D in San Francisco, the overpaid CEO tax, and it looks like that one is likely to fail as of right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:15:54] That’s right. And really what this would have done, San Francisco currently assesses a tax on companies where the difference in pay between the CEO and the median SF employee is a certain amount. This would have changed it to the median nationwide employee. And so that would have potentially increased the taxes on these companies. Again, back to this you know, playbook of, you know Trump enacted these harsh health care cuts, let’s find a way to raise tax revenue locally. That was the argument put forward by a lot of Business groups and particularly the mayor Daniel Lurie argued that this is not the time to be increasing taxes on businesses and voters, you know, clearly went with the argument that this was not the to pursue that kind of tax on SF businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:38] Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, is there anything you think we can say here about the general appetite from voters for more taxes? I mean I know this election in many ways was also about affordability in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:16:54] Say you could take away maybe some of awareness around increased taxes. We’ll have to, I think, take some time to see these results come in and kind of read through the tea leaves on tax measures. Clearly there will be a lot of eyes on this because statewide there are many proposals moving towards the November ballot that would ask voters to increase taxes. There’s the wealth tax on billionaires. It’s gotten a lot attention. There is an extension of California’s income tax that’s being pursued by teachers unions. So they’re all certainly paying attention to what’s happening in these local races to try to get a beat on whether this signals any kind of change in voter appetite around taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:17:35] Yeah, that’s right. I mean, uh, to remind folks, this is just a primary. We still have another election later this year in November. I mean what are you going to be watching for going forward guy and do any of these results say anything about maybe what we can expect in November?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:17:53] Yeah, you know, I think it does depend kind of locality to locality. Certainly in San Francisco, these results pretend a lot of momentum behind Lurie and specifically his November campaign. He’s going to go to the ballot in November and ask voters, can you increase taxes to pay for Muni? Can you pass these reforms on putting on the ballot to change how ballot measure campaigns run in San Francisco? And you look at the results in SF on, on Tuesday. They’re all coming up roses for Lurie. He had these two supervisors that he was supporting that appeared to have won their special elections. Then you combine that with the results on the tax measures in SF. And I think you have to think to some extent voters are getting signals from Lurie and following that lead. So I think that portends well for him in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:18:49] Do we get a break now? Do you get a brake now that the primary is over? Is it just full speed ahead until November?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:18:57] No, the primary is not over. The vote counting will continue. The reason the vote count takes longer is we are a heavily vote-by-mail state where all the checks and all the security that’s in place to prevent voter fraud happens on the back end. It happens after you return your ballot. So it just adds a lot of time. But there will be more scrutiny because at the end of the day these counties are doing this without a ton of new money Without a ton a new machines and new space to count the ballots. So I think you’re going to continue to see that kind of Arguments push and pull is something wrong with our system Is it fine the way it is and are there things that could be done to both? Ensure access and security and maybe also speed up the count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:19:44] I guess in the words of Lenny Kravitz, it ain’t over till it’s over. Guy, thank you so much as always. Appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:19:55] Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are still many ballots left to count, but from the governor’s race to local tax measures and the race to replace Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives, we sit down with KQED’s politics and government correspondent \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"mailto:gmarzorati@kqed.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\" data-rich-links='{\"per_n\":\"Guy Marzorati\",\"per_e\":\"gmarzorati@kqed.org\",\"type\":\"person\"}'>Guy Marzorati\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">about the results of the primary so far.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/elections/results/california\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED: California Primary Election Results \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC8080199858&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Episode transcript\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:36] I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Donna Hemmila \u003c/strong>[00:00:47] This election was agonizing for me. I held my ballot back until like the very last minute, expecting something weird gonna happen at the last minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chirag Hebbar \u003c/strong>[00:00:59] I think with both Gavin Newsom and Pelosi leaving, I think it’s a critical election, which is why I wanted to show up to the polls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Leslie Serrano \u003c/strong>[00:01:08] All the different lieutenant governor and, you know, superintendent and everything that we need to vote on, it’s all important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:18] And now we wait for all the ballots to be counted after Tuesday’s primary election. California voters were asked to choose from a long list of candidates for governor and other statewide offices. And here in the Bay, we also voted on everything from congressional races to local ballot measures. Today, we’re gonna talk about what we know about the results of this primary so far. And what it tells us about what to expect in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:58] Well, Guy, another day, another primary. I’m actually kind of curious if you have a sort of like election day or election week routine that you abide by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:02:13] Have to do something outdoors during the day before the votes come in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:17] Nice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:19] Guy Marzorati is a politics and government correspondent for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:02:24] This year, I knew it was gonna be a long night, so I switched up a little bit and did a Vietnamese coffee late in the afternoon. Both days, both election day and the day after, I almost just took off and flew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:35] Right. I was going to say that’s like jet fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:02:38] Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:44] Well, how did this election night compare to previous election nights and primaries, I guess, specifically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:02:51] Right now I think we’re trending towards somewhere in the ballpark of 40% turnout, which doesn’t sound great, but actually for a governor primary in California is pretty good. You look back at the last few primaries we’ve had for governor, and the turnout has trended in the mid-30s to the low-30, sometimes even in the high 20% turnout. So getting to around 40% is really encouraging. Some of that probably has to do with the national environment. Democrats are the more motivated party across the country. California is a heavily democratic state, but you may have to attribute some of this. To the fact that there was a really competitive governor’s race that voters felt like they could make a real difference in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:38] Well, let’s get into the governor’s race, probably the biggest race in this primary for California voters. Lots of twists and turns in this race and an insane number of names on the ballot, but only the top two are advancing to November. So what do we know so far? Anything surprising in that race?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:03:58] Yeah, I think, you know, on this election night, uniquely in the governor’s race, we went in really not knowing like what combination of results would end up in the top two. We had three candidates most likely competing for two spots in the Governor’s election, Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton. But we went into Tuesday night not knowing, OK, which two of those three is going to make it into the top to any scenario seemed on the table. Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton right now are leading as the two candidates with Democrat Tom Steyer trailing. The question is, as more votes continue to be counted, can Tom Styer move into the top two?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:43] Are the results so far, surprising?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:04:45] Maybe not surprising from like a June 1st perspective, shocking from a April 1st, perspective. Like if you were to, you know, rip Van Winkle from April to election day to see Xavier Becerra who had been really far down in the polls for much of this campaign, have this whole resurgence after former Congress member Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race, would be surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Xavier Becerra \u003c/strong>[00:05:10] Like my family, LA is the starting line for millions of success stories across this state. And here in Hollywood’s hometown, we love a good underdog story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:05:26] When Eric Swalwell dropped out, Becerra didn’t have any big California players behind him from an elected official standpoint. He didn’t any of the big unions endorsing him at that point. He didn’t have a ton of money at that time. It all really came together just in those few weeks after Swalwell got out of the race and kind of completely reshuffled the dynamics of this election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:50] And Republican Steve Hilton has been polling at the top for most of his campaign. What do you make of the race that he’s run and also how he would do in a November election?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:06:02] Yeah, Hilton was really able to consolidate support from California Republicans after he won the endorsement of President Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steve Hilton \u003c/strong>[00:06:11] Obviously we’re very encouraged by these results, nothing is final yet, but it does look as if change is coming to California and that is good news for everyone, every small business, every working family, everyone who wants to see our state set back on track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:06:27] Now, if he is able to make it into the top two in November, it’s a really difficult race for him. And that same endorsement of Trump’s that helped him win over Republicans is going to be a huge liability for him in a state where Trump is still very unpopular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:49] And I mean, in a race full of surprises, are we out of the woods yet with this one? Or is it still possible that, I don’t know, some other crazy thing happens in this race?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:07:02] Yeah, no, I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet as far as twists and turns. There is a possibility, I’m not sure how to put odds on this possibility, but there is a possibility that Tom Steyer gains vote share as ballots continue to be counted and creates a Democrat on Democrat general election. We’ll know a lot more on Friday night when many more counties are going to be reporting their results. Look, we’ve never had two Democrats in a general election for governor of California. That would be a race that is even hard to imagine how it would even play out between Becerra and Steyer, but it’s something that is still potentially on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:50] Well, let’s zoom into some of the more local races, Guy, starting with the race to replace Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives. It looks like State Senator Scott Weiner and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan are advancing to the general election. Any surprises there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:08:09] Yeah, so in that race, we did see Scott Wiener, San Francisco State Senator, finish first in the primary as expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scott Wiener \u003c/strong>[00:08:17] And we’re going to continue to build a massive coalition in every neighborhood of this city, every generation, every background, every community in the greatest city on planet Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:08:36] The real surprise, and I think we are all watching, what would be the outcome between second and third? We saw Connie Chan, a supervisor in San Francisco, finish second with, as of now, basically double the support of Shoikot Chakrabarti, who is a former advisor to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s sitting in third place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Connie Chan \u003c/strong>[00:08:55] This tonight is a start for many many people to see the billionaires all not just in San Francisco but across the nation we’re coming for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:09:10] And I think you really have to go back to the endorsement from former speaker, Nancy Pelosi of Connie Chan late in this race back in May, at least according to the public poll we had from the San Francisco Chronicle, Scott Wiener was leading this primary by good margin. And then Connie Chan, the San Francisco supervisor and Chakrabarti were pretty neck and neck. At that point, Chakrabarti, you know, he was spending 8 million, 9 million dollars. And Connie Chan had this endorsement from Pelosi. And I compared to, remember like a few years ago, people were saying, would you rather have dinner with Jay-Z or $500,000? I think this was like the political version. Would you rather have $9 million to spend or an endorsement from Nancy Pelosi? And I think we found out the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:08] Coming up, how some local ballot measures are doing. By the way, if you appreciate these deep dives into Bay Area news, consider becoming a KQED member. We can’t do this work without your support, so join your Bay Area neighbors and become a member today. KQED.org/donate. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:37] I want to talk, Guy, about local tax measures. There seem to be several of these kinds of local tax measures around the Bay Area in cities that, as we know, have been really struggling with their budgets. So it looks like some of them are likely to pass and others seem to in trouble. I know you are following the hotel tax in San Jose, which seems likely to past. Can you remind us what that is meant to help fund?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:12:04] So measure A in San Jose, an increase in the hotel tax from 10% to 12%, that’s going to fund the city general fund. San Jose goes into a final vote on the city budget next week with a $50 million shortfall projected for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget balancing plan that the mayor Matt Mahan and city leaders have put together relies on measure a passing. They basically warned if this measure doesn’t pass, you’re going to see Sunday library hours cut. You’re going to see the downtown police foot patrol be eliminated. So really what measure a is, is doing is kind of helping the city stay afloat in a year where there is a budget shortfall and it looks like measure a will pass. And I think the fact that it’s a hotel tax paid by people who are coming to stay in San Jose, not maybe necessarily living in San Jose helped this measure politically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:58] Yeah, very interesting because on the other hand, I know you were also following a parcel tax in Oakland that seems like it might not pass. Can you tell us about that one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:13:10] Yeah, so this is Measure E, $192 a year parcel property tax that would raise about, you know, 35-ish million dollars a year. This was a billed really by Barbara Lee, City Unions, again, as a way to bring in money when the city is on kind of uncertain fiscal footing. Unlike Measure A in San Jose, there was like a campaign against Measure E in Oakland. You had realtors spend money. More moderate political groups spend money in order to defeat Measure E. And right now the initial results have the measure failing. Still a lot of votes to be counted. Traditionally, what we’ve seen in Alameda County is they count votes through Wednesday, through Thursday, through Friday. Then they post that result late Friday and it’s a lot votes. And you saw that in the mayor’s race when Barbara Lee won. She was trailing on election day all of a sudden a huge dump of votes on Friday, she wins the race, she’ll be hoping for something similar to happen with Measure E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:15] So TBD there, but I mean, it’s interesting that there were a few other tax measures on the ballot across the Bay, Prop D, the overpaid CEO tax in San Francisco, Measure B in Contra Costa County, to help fund health care there in the wake of federal funding cuts to MediCal and Medicaid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:14:40] That one surprised me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:40] Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:14:41] That one really, that one in Contra Costa really surprised me because basically that was a copy and paste campaign from what we saw in Santa Clara in 2025, which was Trump and House Republicans passed these big cuts to Medicaid, what we call Medi-Cal in California. County health systems are going to be really hit by that. And so in Santa Clare County, they said, look, we need to punch back against Trump. We need to increase local sales tax in order to help hospitals. And you saw both in Contra Costa County and in LA County as well, basically the same campaigns. Let’s frame this as we took this big hit from Trump, let’s find a way to restore funding locally. And in both Contra Costa and LA, those measures are not doing well. What does that speak to? Is that diminishing appetite for those kinds of taxes, diminishing returns on that specific kind of message? There are clearly like intricacies in each of campaigns and how they were run. But that definitely surprised me. I thought that was a winning formula in Santa Clara that could be replicated and doesn’t seem to be the case in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:46] There’s also Prop D in San Francisco, the overpaid CEO tax, and it looks like that one is likely to fail as of right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:15:54] That’s right. And really what this would have done, San Francisco currently assesses a tax on companies where the difference in pay between the CEO and the median SF employee is a certain amount. This would have changed it to the median nationwide employee. And so that would have potentially increased the taxes on these companies. Again, back to this you know, playbook of, you know Trump enacted these harsh health care cuts, let’s find a way to raise tax revenue locally. That was the argument put forward by a lot of Business groups and particularly the mayor Daniel Lurie argued that this is not the time to be increasing taxes on businesses and voters, you know, clearly went with the argument that this was not the to pursue that kind of tax on SF businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:38] Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, is there anything you think we can say here about the general appetite from voters for more taxes? I mean I know this election in many ways was also about affordability in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:16:54] Say you could take away maybe some of awareness around increased taxes. We’ll have to, I think, take some time to see these results come in and kind of read through the tea leaves on tax measures. Clearly there will be a lot of eyes on this because statewide there are many proposals moving towards the November ballot that would ask voters to increase taxes. There’s the wealth tax on billionaires. It’s gotten a lot attention. There is an extension of California’s income tax that’s being pursued by teachers unions. So they’re all certainly paying attention to what’s happening in these local races to try to get a beat on whether this signals any kind of change in voter appetite around taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:17:35] Yeah, that’s right. I mean, uh, to remind folks, this is just a primary. We still have another election later this year in November. I mean what are you going to be watching for going forward guy and do any of these results say anything about maybe what we can expect in November?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:17:53] Yeah, you know, I think it does depend kind of locality to locality. Certainly in San Francisco, these results pretend a lot of momentum behind Lurie and specifically his November campaign. He’s going to go to the ballot in November and ask voters, can you increase taxes to pay for Muni? Can you pass these reforms on putting on the ballot to change how ballot measure campaigns run in San Francisco? And you look at the results in SF on, on Tuesday. They’re all coming up roses for Lurie. He had these two supervisors that he was supporting that appeared to have won their special elections. Then you combine that with the results on the tax measures in SF. And I think you have to think to some extent voters are getting signals from Lurie and following that lead. So I think that portends well for him in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:18:49] Do we get a break now? Do you get a brake now that the primary is over? Is it just full speed ahead until November?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati \u003c/strong>[00:18:57] No, the primary is not over. The vote counting will continue. The reason the vote count takes longer is we are a heavily vote-by-mail state where all the checks and all the security that’s in place to prevent voter fraud happens on the back end. It happens after you return your ballot. So it just adds a lot of time. But there will be more scrutiny because at the end of the day these counties are doing this without a ton of new money Without a ton a new machines and new space to count the ballots. So I think you’re going to continue to see that kind of Arguments push and pull is something wrong with our system Is it fine the way it is and are there things that could be done to both? Ensure access and security and maybe also speed up the count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:19:44] I guess in the words of Lenny Kravitz, it ain’t over till it’s over. Guy, thank you so much as always. Appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"onourwatch": {
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
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