Pelosi makes use of conference stage to spotlight Trump's position in Jan. 6 assault

CHICAGO – Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went after Donald Trump on Wednesday, utilizing her prime-time platform on the Democratic Nationwide Conference to warn voters that his position within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol is sufficient proof he poses an outsized risk to American democracy.

However in her signature fashion, she by no means as soon as talked about his identify.

As a substitute, Pelosi devoted a big a part of her quick speech to revisit the Jan. 6 assault, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the constructing in a failed effort to overturn his election defeat two months earlier.

“Jan. 6 was a deadly second for our democracy,” she mentioned. “By no means earlier than had a president of america so overtly assaulted the bedrock of our democracy, so gleefully embraced political violence, so willfully betrayed his oath of workplace.”

“Allow us to not overlook who assaulted our democracy on Jan. 6,” she continued. “He did!”

Pelosi is a historic determine, rising in 2007 to change into the nation’s first feminine Speaker. However her look on Wednesday was unique for an altogether different reason: It was Pelosi who helped to push President Biden to desert his bid for reelection this 12 months — a unprecedented transfer that greased the way in which for Vice President Harris to fill the void on the prime of the ticket.

Since then, relations between Pelosi and Biden have been strained. The president, after talking on the conference on Monday evening, mentioned he hasn’t spoken with Pelosi, and the New York Occasions has reported that the silence stretches again over a month.

Pelosi used the stage Wednesday evening to supply an olive department, praising Biden for enacting a few of the most vital laws in a long time — together with payments to spice up infrastructure spending, combat local weather change, promote home manufacturing and prop up companies throughout the COVID pandemic.

All of that, Pelosi mentioned, is “because of President Biden’s patriotic imaginative and prescient of a fairer America,” and Biden shall be remembered as “one of the crucial profitable presidencies of recent instances.”

“Thanks, Joe!” she mentioned. 

Pelosi additionally reserved loads of house to reward Harris, hailing the vp as “a frontrunner of energy and knowledge and eloquence” and extolling her determination to choose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who served underneath Pelosi within the Home for greater than a decade, as her operating mate.  

“I do know that Vice President Harris is able to take us to new heights,” she mentioned. 

Pelosi appeared to develop most animated, nonetheless, in her feedback about Jan. 6, warning Democrats that, whereas Harris might need lent a lift to their probabilities in November, they’ve a lot work to do to safe victory. 

“The parable of Jan. 6 reminds us that our democracy is barely as sturdy because the braveness and dedication of these entrusted with its care. And we should select leaders who consider in free and truthful elections, who respect the peaceable switch of energy,” Pelosi mentioned. 

“The selection could not be clearer,” she added. “These leaders are Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz.”

The sharp denouncement comes as little shock coming from Pelosi. Because the Home Democratic chief throughout all 4 years of Trump’s White Home tenure, she clashed ceaselessly with the GOP president over points spanning from abortion rights and immigration to ObamaCare and election integrity. 

Throughout that span, Pelosi launched two profitable impeachments of Trump, the primary for leveraging U.S. navy support to Ukraine to safe political favors and the second for his position within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault. 

Pelosi’s distaste for the previous president can also be private. In late 2022, a conservative conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter broke into her San Francisco house and, discovering Pelosi gone, attacked her husband with a hammer.

Pelosi didn’t point out the tragic episode throughout Wednesday’s speech. However she spoke extra usually about the specter of political violence, and urged voters to “reject autocracy.” 

Solely Democrats, she added, have confirmed prepared to take action.