House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is sharing a top takeaway from her career about taking power in Washington, D.C.
“When people come to her and say, you know, ‘Give me power,’ or ‘Should I run?’ this is the advice that she’s given over the years, ‘Nobody’s going to give it to you. You’ve got to take it,'” USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page said of Pelosi in an interview published on Friday.
Page noted Pelosi received the advice from her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., who challenged a long-term incumbent Democrat in a primary and later took his seat as a U.S. representative from Maryland.
Pelosi’s biography, written by Page, titled “Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power,” comes out on April 20.
When discussing her reasoning behind writing Pelosi’s biography, Page said, “She had the two things I wanted. She had been consequential. She’d done things and she had been unrecognized or underestimated.”
During the interview, Page listed some of Pelosi’s most notable accomplishments.
“She was the highest ranking person in Congress to oppose the Iraq War from the start. She was the leading critic of China on human rights issues. She personally pushed through the bank bailout that probably prevented another Great Depression,” Page said.
She continued, “She is responsible for the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Obama deserves credit, too, but it wouldn’t have happened (without her). And she became the top Democratic counterpoint to the most disruptive president in American history.”
Page went on, “Some people think Pelosi is prominent because she’s the most powerful woman in American history. I think Pelosi is important because she’s one of the most powerful people in American history.”
In the biography, Pelosi also shared how she feels about other Democratic lawmakers who are part of the “squad” and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), as IJR reported.
When talking about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Pelosi said, “You’re not a one-person show. This is the Congress of the United States.”
Pelosi criticized McConnell, saying he “is not a force for good in the country. He is an enabler of some of the worst stuff, and an instigator of some of it on his own.”