Nancy Pelosi says she's unsure if Trump 'knows how to deal with women in power'

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is expected to return to her spot as House speaker on Thursday, is ready to take on Trump.

After telling USA Today that it will be a “different world” for the president — one without “rubber stamps” as the Democrats take back the House majority on Thursday — she appeared on the Today show and said she won’t rule out the president’s being indicted while in office, depending on the findings of the Mueller investigation. “I think that is an open discussion in terms of the law,” Pelosi told Savannah Guthrie.

With Pelosi expected to take the gavel as House speaker, she likely to be the first lawmaker in recent history to hold the office twice in nonconsecutive congresses — and the first woman. (She previously made history by becoming the first female House speaker in 2007.) Asked by Guthrie whether she thinks Trump deals with her differently because she’s a woman, Pelosi said she didn’t know.

“I have no idea,” the legislator replied. “We’ll see how he will deal with the speaker of the House. And that doesn’t matter whether you’re a woman or not,” she said. “But I hope he recognizes that a new day has dawned in America.”

As for whether she thinks he’s afraid of her and other women coming to Congress (the new Congress has a record number of them), she replied, “Well, I don’t know if he [Trump] knows how to deal with women in power and women with strength, but we’ll see. Let’s hope for the best in that regard because, again, it is a new day for many people in Congress, in Washington, D.C., and the country.”

It is a new day, and while Pelosi admitted she’s now the most powerful woman in the U.S. government, she told Guthrie she doesn’t view it as a personal accomplishment but rather a responsibility. “I think of it as a responsibility in how we go forward and what that means in terms of the lives of America’s working families. This isn’t breaking a glass ceiling. This is breaking a marble ceiling in the Capitol of the United States.”

Pelosi memorably met with Trump before the holidays to discuss the potential (now actual) government shutdown and the wall. Afterward, she reportedly dismissed Trump’s wall as “a manhood thing.” Asked about that by Guthrie, all she would say was, “I wish that my members had not repeated that outside the room.”

Pelosi also gave insight about what it’s like negotiating with Trump, a president like no other, saying he “resists science, evidence, data, truth,” adding, “It’s hard to pin the president down on the facts.”

<span>Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.</span> facing off with President Trump at the White House on Dec. 11. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski /AFP/Getty Images)
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. facing off with President Trump at the White House on Dec. 11. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski /AFP/Getty Images)


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