America’s first female speaker set to retake the gavel in the US House after eight years
Nancy Pelosi is once again Washington’s most powerful woman, poised to reclaim the US House speaker’s gavel Thursday as opponent-in-chief to an impulsive and unpredictable President Donald Trump.
Keeping Trump in check will be among the California Democrat’s top challenges as she presides over the House of Representatives through the 2020 elections, when her party aims to dethrone the Republican commander in chief.
Pelosi was almost certain to win Thursday’s House vote for speaker, a position she held for four years from 2007, when she made history as the first woman ever to rise to that post.
With outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan yielding to the 78-year-old, she will again become the nation’s third most senior official and seal her reputation as one of the great survivors in American politics.
In her first stint, Pelosi was a strong opposing force to Republican George W. Bush in the final two years of his presidency.
Her role as a restraint on Trump would be similar.
But she will also need to keep the reins tight on her own caucus, some of whose newly empowered progressives are seeking swift punitive measures against Trump in the coming months.
She and the Democratic leadership would have the power to block Republican legislation, hamstringing large parts of Trump’s agenda ranging from proposed new tax cuts to building a wall on the border with Mexico.
And Pelosi could make life for Trump much harder if she uses subpoena power to compel administration officials to testify before Congress or turn over key documents, or if she launches impeachment proceedings.
