Donald Trump has never met a woman like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Few people have. Pelosi grew up in Baltimore, the daughter of a congressman who became mayor. When she was 10, she held the Bible as her father was sworn in. She was the seventh child with six older brothers. One of those brothers also became the city’s mayor. The president and his people have no idea what to do with her — especially after this.
The House speaker’s job includes offering the formal invitation to the president to walk into her side of Congress for his State of the Union address. Pelosi told him he was not invited.
Pelosi wrote to Trump:
‘Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th.’
She took away that which Trump most values, his television time. Had Pelosi not rescinded his invitation, POTUS would have had well over an hour to address the Congress, the Supreme Court, and all of the Americans tuning in to hear him. She cited security concerns.
This would have been a once-in-a-year opportunity for Trump to criticize his so-called enemies of the people: his opponents, the Democrats, and others. He could have bragged about his thread-bare accomplishments and laced the whole speech with lies and bigger lies.
Of course, the speaker wrote the request politely. However, there was no doubt about the rock-hard will beneath it, what some call the steel hand in a velvet glove. The State of the Union address was cancelled only once before when President Ronald Reagan rescheduled it in 1986 out of deference for the Challenger space shuttle explosion. Pelosi had made history.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been aiding the president in his hostage-taking of 800,000 furloughed government workers and the rippling economies around them. McConnell refused to bring any of the bills to reopen the government to the floor.
Men of Trump’s and McConnell’s generation often see women as mothers and wives only, as women whose value is to make his own life more comfortable, to serve him, and to make his life run more smoothly. Men like them are used to telling women what to do without question. Pelosi is different.
While Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) has caught Trump’s digs, she smoothly slides beyond the reach of his ranting with dignity, intelligence, and self-command.
No one has ever told Donald Trump no. If manipulation does not work, he bullies. Unfortunately for him, Pelosi falls for neither.
Pelosi was the first woman to serve as speaker of the House. She was also the first woman to serve as speaker of the House — twice.
President Barack Obama has had this to say about Pelosi, according to her online Congressional page bio:
‘(Pelosi is) an extraordinary leader for the American people.’
The Christian Science Monitor described her in this way, her bio continued:
‘…make no mistake: Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful woman in American politics and the most powerful House Speaker since Sam Rayburn a half century ago.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
