Susan Page - Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power

November 8, 2016Washington, D.C.

N ancy Pelosi dressed that morning in the colors of the suffragettes, in a white pantsuit and purple top. By the end of the day, she was certain that Hillary Clinton would make history by winning the White House, nearly a century after women had won the right to vote.

As the polls were beginning to close, the House Democratic leader headed to the set of PBS NewsHour in suburban Virginia for an interview. When she arrived, she got distressing news, but it wasnt about the election. Sharon Percy Rockefeller, the CEO of public TV station WETA, took her aside to let her know that Gwen Ifill, the programs groundbreaking anchor, was on her deathbed. She said, Its coming to the end for Gwen, Pelosi told me, her voice emotional at the memory even four years later. It was public knowledge that Ifill was battling cancer, but only a handful knew that she had gone into hospice care. She would pass away a week later. It was a very tearful thingso saddening, so personal for all of us. The night didnt start out well.

On the air, though, Pelosi projected nothing but positivity about what was going to happen when the polls closed. We will, of course, retain the White House, with the election of Hillary Clinton, she declared flatly. Her self-confidence had been honed by an aptitude for political warfare and a history of election nights. It will be close, but we will regain the United States Senate. And we will pick up many seats in the House of Representatives.

Why are you so confident about the White House? anchor Judy Woodruff asked.

Because Im confident in the American people, Pelosi answered. Her certainty was being echoed by the entire Washington political class, an ecosystem that she had maneuvered through and thrived in for decadesand one that was about to get an epic comeuppance.

When Woodruff opened the interview by noting that Pelosi was the highest-ranking female politician in American history, she replied with a smile, Im counting the minutes to relinquish that title. At the end, when the journalist repeated that distinction, Pelosi looked theatrically at her watch and replied, For the moment! For the moment!

To the astonishment of Pelosi and just about everyone else in American politics, of course, her moment wasnt over. When the returns were counted, the new president would be real estate magnate and reality-TV star Donald Trump. Like it or not, Pelosi would keep her standing as the most powerful woman in American political history for a while longer, and one whose personal plans, known only to her confidantes, had just been upended. She had intended to step back from elective office once Hillary was in the White House. That idea was instantly shelved.

She was crushed that Hillary Clinton had lost. The two women had known each other since they met at the Democratic National Convention in 1984, when Pelosi was chair of the San Francisco host committee and Clinton was the wife of the up-and-coming governor of Arkansas. After Bill Clinton was elected president, they had occasionally clashed, notably over Hillary Clintons decision to address the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. She was really against my going, Clinton told me; Pelosi argued it sent the wrong signal at a time when Chinese American human rights activist Harry Wu had been arrested. But over the years they had worked in concert on Democratic politics and policy, and Pelosi had long been an advocate for more women in public office. They shared a certain kinship. Both women were trailblazers who had been attacked and caricatured by their critics.

In 2016, Nancy Pelosi was delighted by the prospect of turning over the most-powerful-woman mantle to a President Hillary Clinton.

At the time, few knew that Pelosi was making plans for the 2016 election to be her valedictory. (To be fair, some of those close to her questioned whether she actually would have followed through if Clinton had won.) After three decades as a congresswoman from California, nearly half of that time as the leader of the House Democrats, Pelosi said she was getting ready to take a breath, dote on her nine grandchildren, perhaps write her memoirs. At seventy-six years old, she was well past the retirement age for almost every workplace except Congress. Some friends thought she might cap her career with an appointment as the U.S. ambassador to Italy or the Vatican. With Hillary Clinton in the White House, Pelosi could be confident that the causes she had fought for would be protected, especially the Affordable Care Act that she had pushed through Congress against all odds.

I have things to do, she would muse. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love.

After Nancy Pelosi left the PBS studio, she dropped by the headquarters of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (or DCCC, dubbed the D-Triple-C) on Capitol Hill, then joined a poll-watching party for big donors at Maryland representative John Delaneys town house nearby. She was on her cell phone, tracking key House races, when she began to get an inkling about what was happening.

She checked in with Pennsylvania congressman Bob Brady, a big-city pol in the mold of Pelosis father, who had been a three-term mayor of Baltimore. Brady had led the Philadelphia Democratic organization for decades; he knew how to read elections. My dear friend and confidant, she called him. In their first conversation that night, he was upbeat. Democrats always needed a big edge from the Philadelphia vote to carry the state, and he assured her they would deliver it. In their second conversation, he struck a note of caution. Were going to get our vote, he told her, but theres a lot coming in for the rest of the state [that was] not so good. He still thought the city vote could offset it, though.

Then he called and said, Its not going to happen here, Pelosi recalled, a conversation that took her breath away. She told me she wasnt ready to inform those around her that, in her judgment, the loss of the swing state of Pennsylvania meant the presidential election was over. But she did stop offering reassurances. I didnt deflect their concern by saying, Dont worry; its going to be okay, because it wasnt going to be okay.