Pelosi honored by pro-abortion rights PAC: ‘She’s a game-changer’

The brightest of D.C.’s Democratic Party establishment came out on Tuesday night to honor Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the 2023 We Are EMILY National Gala, applauding her tenure as Speaker and galvanizing support for abortion as a key issue in the upcoming elections.

EMILY’s List, the abortion rights political action committee aimed at getting Democratic female candidates into office, honored Pelosi on Tuesday in recognition of the progressive legislation that passed Congress in her time as the first female Speaker of the House.

Among those who came out to honor Pelosi were President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.).

Biden was the surprise, last-minute guest of the night cutting in after after Clark’s introduction for Pelosi.

“I heard my friend Nancy Pelosi is being honored and I knew I had to be here,” Biden said.

“There’s a famous quote that is one that says, ‘What we’ve done for ourselves dies with us. What we’ve done for others and the world remains immortal.’ One of the reasons why Nancy is going to be so, so well thought of in history as well is what she’s done for everyone. I mean it. She’s a game changer,” Biden added.

“It is because of the leadership of Speaker Pelosi that we have the Affordable Care Act. It is because of her leadership that 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions will not now be denied coverage,” Harris said.

The vice president delivered a fiery address in which she bashed “extremist so-called leaders” who have passed total abortion bans across the country.

“See this moment in the context of the history we have lived and see it in the context of the future we must shape,” said Harris. “Because this fight is not only about the people of Florida and Texas. Let’s see where this is headed. These extremists have a plan to take their agenda national. Their blueprint is to attack hard won fights, hard won rights and freedoms state-by-state.”

In her own remarks, Pelosi looked back on the 2022 midterms, remarking on how some Democratic candidates were able to beat their Republican opponents in part by highlighting where they each stood on a woman’s ability to obtain an abortion. She credited these successes to the support of EMILY’s List.

“It’s very doable for us to take back the House in the next election, where we will have Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, Majority Leader Katherine Clark, with Pete Aguilar of California, Ted Lieu of California — all of them in the leadership,” Pelosi said.

“We’ll be increasing our majority in the Senate so that Chuck Schumer will continue to be the Majority Leader of the United States Senate,” she continued. “And we will be electing President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris [as] President and Vice President of the United States.”

“Extreme Republicans waging war on women’s rights need to know one thing: We’re not going back,” said Pelosi.