They called her from the marble hallway: “Nancy, where are you? We’re looking for you!”
“Nancy! Oh, Naashi.”
In those few minutes in January. On June 6, 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took action. She is a fighting general in taupe heels, calling for the mobilization of troops, quelling ambushes and ensuring a peaceful transfer of power.
This is what the US finally saw in the video that aired on January 1. 6 Special committee hearing Thursday.
Calm, calm, focused, Pelosi was the leader American democracy needed at the time.
Tell me again: How do women get too emotional and out of control?
If only the humiliating President Richard M. Nixon could see how this poised woman—seeing the medieval scene of thousands of people squeezed in outside—was handled.
Nixon was the king of “emotional” female tropes.
According to a book written at the time by former White House counsel John W. Dean, he considered appointing a woman to the Supreme Court in 1971 because he hoped it would give him a chance in the 1972 election. 2% extra. Still, the idea repulsed Nixon.
“I don’t think women should be in any government jobs. I mean, I don’t really know,” Nixon said. “I do it mainly because they are unstable. And emotional. Men are unstable and emotional too, but the point is that women are more likely to be.”
Um. I think we missed all those grumpy and capricious outbursts of Margaret Thatcher or Angela Merkel or dozens of others who stayed calm and rational and just Female leaders doing good work.
Some men still like to dig deep into their souls that they need a mom, because female leaders are no sugar cookie sweet tooth. Remember when Vice President Harris was called “hysterical” during a 2017 hearing for challenging the firm and tough indictment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions?
During the Nixon era, polls showed that many people — as high as 55 percent based on education — thought women were too emotional and unfit for politics. This has changed, but not much.In our newly enlightened world – Hillary Clinton won the presidential election – 13% of respondents still Believing that women are emotionally less suitable for politics. That means about one in seven think a woman would be too emotional to do exactly what Pelosi did on Jan. 1. 6: Lead.
“We have to somehow keep people feeling that there is some sense of security or some confidence that the government can work and that the president of the United States can be elected,” she told the crowd gathered in the safe zone. The location is at the Capitol.
Meanwhile, Richard “Bigo” Barnett, armed with a stun gun, plopped down on Pelosi’s chair and put his feet on her desk. He wrote her a note:
“Nancy, Bigo has been here, you–“
Trump assured Barnett and others that it would be “crazy” if they came to Washington that day. it is.
Not so with Pelosi, however.
She didn’t pull Josh Hawley (the Republican senator from Missouri took an 11.7-second video of the 100-meter dash from rioters that day). She didn’t curse, scream or complain.
Forget her politics; it’s hard to see the video played to the committee today and deny her cool head in the chaos.
“Hi Governor, I’m Nancy,” Pelosi said in a phone call to Virginia’s governor. Ralph Northam (D), if she went through the mechanics of asking the Capitol for help.
She was well aware that they had been abandoned by the rest of the federal government because the Capitol Police had been beaten outside and no one seemed to be there to help.
In part of the video, members gather around the phone, talking to people who might be able to help. But the guy is messing around, explaining the leaders on the ground and yada yada yada.
Pelosi chimed in: “Okay, just pretend — pretend for a while that the Pentagon or the White House or some other entity is under siege. Let me say, if you have a plan, you can logically bring people there.”
She then appeared to try to get lawmakers back into session.
“We got a very bad report on the condition of the floor of the House,” Pelosi said.
“There’s a bowel movement and stuff like that,” said the mother of five, who knows a thing or two about messes.
She moved on with steadfastness: “I don’t think it’s hard to clean up,” she said.