After a brief revelry, Dems gird for long fights
Pelosi again elected speaker, vowing a ‘unifying’ tenure
WASHINGTON — Ebullient Democrats assumed control of the House on Thursday and elected Rep. Nancy Pelosi speaker, returning her to a historic distinction as the first woman to hold the post. They then prepared moves to force open government agencies shuttered by an impasse over President Donald Trump’s border wall.
On the first day of divided government in a reordered Washington, Pelosi, now second in line to the presidency, and Trump clashed from their respective ends of Pennsylvania Avenue almost from dawn until dusk. The California Democrat began her day by suggesting that a sitting president could be indicted. Late in the day, Trump made an attentiongetting appearance in the White House briefing room with a belligerent demand for a wall on the Mexican border.
In between, as the start of the new House majority showcased a younger and more diverse majority in the staid corridors of the Capitol, Pelosi pledged to run a “unifying” Congress that would bridge partisan divides and heal rifts in a polarized country.
“Our nation is at a historic moment,” she declared. “I pledge that this Congress will be transparent, bipartisan and unifying, that we will seek to reach across the aisle in this country, and across divisions across our nation.”
In ascending to the speakership, Pelosi finds herself at the fulcrum of a bitterly divided body politic, poised to do battle with and demand accountability from an increasingly combative Trump in ways the Republican Congress of the past two years refused to. With Trump, his presidential campaign and his businesses all under federal and state investigations, Pelosi’s approach to confronting him — both through investigation and legislation — will probably define the 116th Congress.
House Democrats wasted no time in getting to work Thursday, passing a pair of bills that would end the partial government shutdown and defying Trump’s insistence that any such measure include billions of dollars in funding for a wall. The measure approved to reopen the Department of Homeland Security included no funds for the wall.
The late-night votes could begin a pattern in an era of divided control, with a Democratic House passing legislation that has no chance of being signed by the Republican president, and the Republican Senate running interference to protect Trump.
“Let’s not waste the time,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader.
Trump used his abrupt appearance in the White House briefing room — his first since taking office — to talk about the importance of the wall, flanked by border agents who echoed his message.
He congratulated Pelosi on her election and said he had high aspirations for the new Congress. But he pivoted immediately to making the case for a wall that Democrats have uniformly rejected, saying, “Without a wall, you cannot have border security.”
As afternoon turned to evening and the votes to reopen the government approached, Pelosi told reporters sarcastically that she would give him $1 for the wall.
“We’re not doing a wall,” Pelosi said sternly outside the House chamber. “Does anybody have any doubt that we’re not doing a wall? So that’s that.”
That capped a day that began with a warning shot to Trump, suggesting that a sitting president could be indicted.
In a statement that served as a two-pronged warning, both to her left flank and to the president, she said the House would not move quickly to impeach Trump, but would not shy away from doing so it if was warranted.
By early afternoon, partisan politics were put aside, if only briefly, for a transition of power from Republicans to Democrats, as a majority of lawmakers rose in turn from their seats on the House floor to utter Pelosi’s name and formally award her the gavel she gave up in 2011.
Pelosi ascended to the marble dais in the center of the House chamber with Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the incoming Republican leader, who handed her the wooden gavel.
“To the speaker of the House, Ms. Pelosi, I extend to you the gavel,” he said. The room erupted into applause as Pelosi held it aloft.
Moments later, with a “Come on, kids!” Pelosi invited the children and grandchildren on the floor of the House to surround her as she took the oath of office, becoming the first person since Rep. Sam Rayburn more than 60 years ago to reclaim the speakership after losing it.
“I now call the House to order on behalf of all of America’s children,” Pelosi said after she was sworn in.
On Thursday evening, Democrats approved a suite of new rules that will set the tone for their majority, including a measure — opposed by liberal members — to require that any policy mandating new funding be accompanied with corresponding tax increases or spending cuts. Another change would automatically raise the statutory limit on the national debt when the House approves a budget, avoiding politically difficult votes each time the ceiling is reached, which dogged Republicans.
Also included were revisions to ensure that bipartisan proposals could be more easily considered, pushed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers billing themselves the Problem Solvers Caucus.