L
ost in the wilderness of the
Trump era, Democrats looked
long and hard for a champion:Robert Mueller, the media, even
Michael Avenatti. But when the party
retook the House in November 2018,
and Nancy Pelosi began her historic
second term as Speaker, no one
doubted the search was over. Often
dismissed as a San Francisco
liberal, she’s now the indispensable
Democrat, contesting with “the Squad”
and centrists alike, winning with
substance and imagery, holding fire
on impeachment until precisely
the right moment. The Speaker talks
to Abigail Tracy about the road to
impeachment, how the Democrats won
in 2018, why Trump is unique among
presidents she’s known, why her
job is like weaving, and the work to be
done after Trump is gone.
Tell me about the moment you
reached the decision to go down the
impeachment path.
I take a lot of guidance from the vision
of our founders, and our founders
fought very hard for our democracy, for
our country, for our Constitution.
In the dark days of revolution, Thomas
Paine said, “The times have found us.”
We believe that the times have found
us to keep the republic from all
enemies, foreign and domestic. And
that would be those who say things
like, “Article II says I can do whatever
I want.” That’s not a republic, that’s
a monarchy. That’s not what we have.
How did your experience as a
legislator during the Bill Clinton
impeachment shape your view?
The Clinton impeachment was totally,
totally wrong for our country. The
president, of course, was personally
wrong to do what he did. But that’s
not an impeachable offense. I was very
concerned at the time—because
I do take impeachment seriously—that
the Republicans were using it very
frivolously and were disrespectful to
the Constitution.
When I became Speaker, people
wanted me to impeach President
George W. Bush over the war in Iraq.
They were misrepresenting to
American people what was happening
in Iraq. But I didn’t think you could
impeach one president and then
go impeach the next president, and
88 VANITY FAIR