Democrat Nancy Pelosi Elected US House Speaker For The Second Time

The California Democrat reclaimed the post amid a
congressional face-off with President Donald Trump over border wall
funding that has left parts of the federal government shuttered for
the third time in a year.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was elected speaker of the House
Thursday for a second time, as Democrats took control of the lower
chamber.

Pelosi, 78 — who retook the speaker’s gavel after a formal floor
vote that lasted about an hour— reclaimed the House’s top
leadership post amid a congressional face-off with President Donald
Trump over border wall funding that has left parts of the federal
government shuttered for the third time in a year.

Pelosi won with 220 votes, with 12 Democrats for someone other
than Pelosi and three Democrats voting present.

The California Democrat — who previously served as House speaker
from 2007 until 2011 that spanned the administrations of Presidents
George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and led Democrats under the
eight-year Republican majority in the House that followed — secured
enough support to win the leadership post late last year, despite a
brief insurrection among a small group of Democrats.

“Two months ago, the American people spoke, and demanded a new
dawn,” Pelosi planned to say in remarks on the House floor Thursday
immediately after the vote, according to excerpts. “They called
upon the beauty of our Constitution: our system of checks and
balances that protects our democracy, remembering that the
legislative branch is Article I: the first branch of government,
co-equal to the president and judiciary.”

The new Democratic Caucus chairman, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries,
D-N.Y., formally nominated Pelosi on the House floor to rousing
applause. A number of House Democrats were spotted wearing “Madame
Speaker” blue buttons.

Pelosi’s family, including her husband Paul and her children,
were in the gallery, and her nine grandchildren were inside the
chamber as well during the vote. Her other guests included singer
Tony Bennett, Project Runway host Tim Gunn, Grateful Dead drummer
Mickey Hart and EMILY’S List founder Ellen Malcolm and President
Stephanie Schriock, among others.

Her election came as the partial government shutdown stretched
into its 13th day, with no deal to end it on the horizon. The
House, under the newly-elected speaker, planned to vote on Thursday
on an appropriations package that end that stoppage.

“We will debate and advance good ideas no matter where they come
from,” Pelosi planned to say. And in that spirit, Democrats will be
offering the Senate Republican appropriations legislation to
re-open government later today — to meet the needs of the American
people, to protect our borders, and to respect our workers.”

That vote was scheduled to take place Thursday evening, despite
the fact that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has
said he will not bring up the legislation for a vote in that
chamber.

Also on the new Democratic majority’s agenda: oversight. In an
exclusive interview with NBC’s “Today” ahead of Thursday’s vote,
Pelosi didn’t rule out the prospect of a Trump impeachment.

“We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we
shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason,” she said.

Asked about the legal opinion that a sitting president cannot be
indicted, Pelosi said that it was not settled law. She added that
“everything indicates” a “president can be indicted after he is no
longer president of the United States.”

Culled from .nbcnews.com