Nancy Pelosi emerges as Donald Trump’s most powerful political adversary
- Nancy Pelosi’s role leading Donald Trump’s impeachment will dramatically shape her legacy after more than 30 years in Congress
- She has declared the US president an ‘ongoing threat to our national security’
Last December, US President Donald Trump mocked Nancy Pelosi’s leadership skills in an Oval Office meeting, suggesting she needed help to secure enough votes to become the House speaker.
The California Democrat sent a warning shot that set the table for their relationship going forward. “Mr President,” Pelosi interjected.
“Please don’t characterise the strength that I bring to this meeting.”
Over the next year Pelosi firmly established herself as the president’s most powerful political adversary, winning a showdown with him in January on the budget and regularly winning other one-on-one confrontations. A caucus filled with younger Democrats who questioned the 79-year-old’s liberal bona fides now stands firmly behind her.
“Our founders’ vision of a Republic is under threat from actions from the White House. That is why today, as speaker of the House, I solemnly and sadly open the debate on the impeachment of the president of the United States,” Pelosi said early Wednesday afternoon, formally launching the impeachment debate.