Baltimore-born Nancy Pelosi came to the Central Enoch Pratt Free Library on Thursday night for what was described as a book tour, but she ended up holding what amounted to a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“I didn’t know we could talk politics,” Pelosi told an overflow crowd of about 600 people, and then glanced around the room. “I think we’re talking civics here right now, right?” The audience chuckled.
Pelosi was referring to an IRS regulation that prohibits nonprofit organizations such as the Pratt from campaigning on behalf of candidates running for public office.
“Kamala Harris should be elected president of the United States because she is the best person for the job,” Pelosi said, and then went on to explain the message she thinks the Democratic Party must convey to win the election.
“People vote in their self-interest,” she said, “and we want to make sure they see their self-interest clearly in the distinction between the two parties.
“We have to make that case to the American people. It hasn’t been made strongly enough. They don’t fully appreciate it, and we take responsibility for their lack of appreciation. But we want to drive the message home.”
Pelosi is the daughter of a former congressman and mayor of Baltimore (Thomas D’Alesandro Jr.) and the sister of another city mayor, (Thomas D’Alesandro III).
She often describes her career trajectory as “housewife to House member to House speaker.” She didn’t seek political office for the first time until 1987, when she was 46 and after Alexandra, the youngest of her five children, told her, “Mother, get a life.”
Twenty years later, Pelosi made history by becoming the first woman to be elected House speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress.
She came to the Pratt to discuss her second book, “The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House,” which was published Tuesday by Simon & Schuster.
Pelosi played to her audience during her hourlong presentation by making several references to her hometown. Sometimes, that meant describing her lilac silk suit as “Ravens purple” or talking about the role the Pratt played in her own life. Other times, it meant singling out Democratic politicians for praise, from U.S. Rep Kweisi Mfume, who was in the audience, to Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who did not appear to be.
Karsonya Wise Whitehead, who moderated the discussion, didn’t ask Pelosi two questions on many audience members’ minds: whether she helped persuade U.S. President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, as has been widely assumed, and the extent to which Pelosi might have influenced Harris’ selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
But Pelosi repeatedly criticized the Republican nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump.
She described hiding with other congressional leaders at Fort McNair on Jan. 6, 2021, as marauders carrying weapons and zip ties roamed the halls of the U.S. Capitol, demanding, “Where’s Nancy?”
“I had to remain calm because there was insanity at the White House,” Pelosi said.
“It was awful. There can be no denying that this was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States. The question is whether we will have a peaceful transfer of power the next time we have an election.”
Pelosi has a reputation as a master strategist, and “The Art of Power” is less a memoir than it is a practical treatise on how she pushed the votes through on key initiatives, such as the Affordable Care Act.
The book discusses the impact that America’s increasing political polarization has had on Pelosi’s life in two chapters: the Jan. 6 riots and the attack on Pelosi’s husband, Paul, in the couple’s San Francisco home in the early morning of Oct. 28, 2022.
Paul Pelosi, then 82, was seriously injured when he was hit three times in the head with a hammer by an intruder who demanded to know the whereabouts of the congresswoman, who was in Washington at the time. Pelosi, who admitted that she feels survivor guilt, resigned as House speaker a few weeks later.
Nancy Pelosi, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Stacey Abrams to speak at Pratt Library
“We have to bring this country together,” she said. “We don’t want women or young people or anybody coming into politics to have any fear for themselves or their families.”
Though she decried political violence in general, Pelosi did not mention the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Mfume said after the presentation that Pelosi’s influence hasn’t diminished one iota in the 20 months since she stepped down as House speaker. He thinks that laying down her leadership responsibilities has liberated Pelosi by freeing her to speak more candidly.
“If anything,” Mfume said, “her influence has grown.”
