House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made an appearance in Omaha for the Nebraska Democratic Party’s annual fundraiser, the Morrison Exon Dinner, at the Hilton hotel downtown on Saturday.
The fundraiser celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
“Women fought, they marched … they were starved, they were alienated, but they knew what their vision was,” Pelosi said. “And they changed America forever.”
Greeted by a packed ballroom of Democrats, Pelosi addressed her party’s impeachment efforts, President Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria and the majority’s push for a Democratic president in 2020.
In her speech, she said that impeaching the president wasn’t “something anybody went to Congress to do.”
“But, we do take an oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Pelosi said. “The times have found us.”
She accused the president of thinking that “Article II says he can do anything,” referring to Article II of the Constitution which establishes the executive branch of the federal government.
“It doesn’t say that at all,” Pelosi said. “How we make a judgment about someone in office is about the Constitution and the facts. When we have the facts, we’ll be ready. And we are ready.”
She also mentioned the significance of the Ukraine phone call, saying that it crossed a line that “cannot be explained or ignored.”
“Mind you, this phone call was not something [where] they were proud of it so they told us about it,” she said. “A whistleblower told us about it.”
Regarding the United States’ withdrawal from Syria, Pelosi said, “What bothers me is that all roads lead to Putin,” implying Trump’s decision to do so was beneficial for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Pelosi said that the Democratic majority in Congress will keep trying to expand. She also stressed the importance of electing a Democratic president next year to defeat Trump, citing climate change as one of the primary issues the world faces today.
“The future is all about our children,” she said. “We hope to build [climate preservation] in a bipartisan way. And to do that, we must win big in the next election.”
In addition, she called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for referring to himself as the “grim reaper,” in terms of killing legislation written by Democrats. She mentioned bills lowering prescription drug prices, expanding gun control, and etc.
“[Senator McConnell] may think that, but these bills are alive and well in the public,” Pelosi said. “They have a high percentage of support, bipartisan, in the public, and we’re just going to make it too hot to handle.”
Senator McConnell said he predicted Pelosi’s attempts at impeachment will create a standstill in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to recent Politico reporting.
“Her problem at the moment is internal [in her caucus], not with us, but how to manage that whole process and how can we fit other things in it,” McConnell said.
In addition, he said that “the only thing that seems to really inspire House Democrats these days is their obsession with overturning the results of the 2016 election.”