CHICAGO — Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went after former President Trump on Wednesday, using her prime-time platform at the Democratic National Convention to warn voters that his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is enough evidence that he poses an outsized threat to American democracy.
But in her signature style, she never once mentioned his name.
Instead, Pelosi dedicated a large part of her short speech to revisit the Jan. 6 attack, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building in a failed effort to overturn his election defeat two months earlier.
“Jan. 6 was a perilous moment for our democracy,” she said. “Never before had a president of the United States so brazenly assaulted the bedrock of our democracy, so gleefully embraced political violence, so willfully betrayed his oath of office.”
“Let us not forget who assaulted our democracy on Jan. 6,” she continued. “He did!”
Pelosi is a historic figure, rising in 2007 to become the nation’s first female Speaker. But her appearance Wednesday was unique for an altogether different reason. It was Pelosi who helped to push President Biden to abandon his bid for reelection this year — an extraordinary move that greased the way for Vice President Harris to fill the void at the top of the ticket.
Since then, relations between Pelosi and Biden have been strained. The president, after speaking at the convention Monday night, said he hasn’t spoken with Pelosi, and The New York Times has reported that the silence stretches back over a month.
Pelosi used the stage Wednesday night to offer an olive branch, praising Biden for enacting some of the most significant legislation in decades — including bills to boost infrastructure spending, fight climate change, promote domestic manufacturing and prop up businesses during the COVID pandemic.
All of that, Pelosi said, is “thanks to President Biden’s patriotic vision of a fairer America,” and Biden’s administration will be remembered as “one of the most successful presidencies of modern times.”
“Thank you, Joe!” she said.
Pelosi also reserved plenty of space to praise Harris, hailing the vice president as “a leader of strength and wisdom and eloquence” and extolling her decision to pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — who served under Pelosi in the House for more than a decade — as her running mate.
“I know that Vice President Harris is ready to take us to new heights,” she said.
Pelosi seemed to grow most animated, however, in her comments about Jan. 6, warning Democrats that, while Harris might have lent a boost to their chances in November, they have much work to do to secure victory.
“The parable of Jan. 6 reminds us that our democracy is only as strong as the courage and commitment of those entrusted with its care. And we must choose leaders who believe in free and fair elections, who respect the peaceful transfer of power,” Pelosi said.
“The choice couldn’t be clearer,” she added. “Those leaders are Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz.”
The sharp denouncement comes as little surprise coming from Pelosi. As the House Democratic leader during all four years of Trump’s White House tenure, she clashed frequently with the GOP president over issues spanning from abortion rights and immigration to ObamaCare and election integrity.
During that span, Pelosi launched two successful impeachments of Trump, the first for leveraging U.S. military aid to Ukraine to secure political favors and the second for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Pelosi’s distaste for the former president is also personal. In late 2022, a conservative conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter broke into her San Francisco home and, finding Pelosi gone, attacked her husband with a hammer.
Pelosi did not mention the tragic episode during Wednesday’s speech. But she spoke more generally about the threat of political violence and urged voters to “reject autocracy.”
Only Democrats, she added, have proven willing to do so.