Like most politicians, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got to where she is by choosing her words and actions carefully. But who is the real Nancy Pelosi? In order to answer that question, you need to see Pelosi when she doesn’t realize the cameras are rolling!
To get to the bottom of who Pelosi really is, we put together the most candid Pelosi moments ever caught on camera!
Pelosi gives Trump the ‘point’
Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi were very antagonistic political opponents in public. But it was apparently even wilder behind closed doors, as we can see from this photo of Pelosi pointing right at Trump during a 2019 White House meeting.
When this photo came out, it was soon politicized. Trump mocked Pelosi for it, while Pelosi wasted no time making this her cover image on Twitter!
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Pelosi tears Trump up… sort of
Part of what makes Pelosi so influential is that she can make waves even when the camera isn’t focused on her. For example, she waited until Trump completed his 2020 State of the Union speech to quietly tear her copy of his speech up. Cameras nonetheless caught what she did, and Pelosi’s fans quickly turned this moment into a viral online sensation.
Pelosi gets caught breaking pandemic rules
Not all candid Nancy Pelosi moments make her look tough, though. For example, she was busted visiting her hairdresser without a mask in September 2020. This violated the COVID-19 rules at the time and seriously muddied the water when she asked supporters to take the pandemic seriously.
When we say Pelosi is controversial, this incident is a prime example. It’s difficult to take our lawmakers seriously when they don’t hesitate to violate their own rules and regulations when they don’t think they are being recorded!
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A meeting of the minds
In this photo, Pelosi hugs Hillary Clinton (then Secretary of State) during a celebration for Women’s History Month. As you can tell from the picture, both of them were very excited to embrace.
That shouldn’t be surprising due to everything they have in common. Each one of them is one of the most powerful and controversial female politicians to have ever lived. Accordingly, each one has also struggled through misogynistic criticism over the course of their careers, but this hasn’t kept them from smiling (and occasionally clapping back).
A sarcastic clapback
When we talk about “clapping back” at someone, we’re usually just talking metaphorically. But at the end of the 2019 State of the Union address, Pelosi clapped toward Trump in the most passive-aggressive way.
Seriously: if you didn’t think it was possible to transmit sarcasm via clapping, this video will change your mind!
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Pelosi meets Sesame Street
It’s sometimes surprising to remember how long Pelosi has been a prominent politician. In this 1995 photo, we can see her posing in front of a stack of letters (35,000, to be precise) that people wrote to support funding public television.
But she had a little help: she was joined by none other than Ernie from Sesame Street! Honestly, we probably would have preferred Cookie Monster. We can almost hear it: “N is for NPR… it’s good enough for me!”
If looks could kill
Pelosi didn’t quite have the public beef with George W. Bush that she did with Donald Trump. But as this photo proves, giving Republican presidents her most intense look is an old habit for Nancy Pelosi!
Then again, if you had to work with someone who flubbed his lines as often as George W. Bush did, then you might be rocking a similar expression toward that person each and every day.
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Pelosi tells Democrats to ’embrace the suck’
We normally think of politicians as having silver tongues and carefully chosen words. But behind closed doors, Pelosi isn’t afraid to get very blunt with her fellow Democrats. As this 2013 video shows, Pelosi told House Democrats behind closed doors that they need to “embrace the suck” regarding an upcoming budget deal.
This phrase is typically associated with the Marines as they remind each other that most of their job is “suck” and not “fun.” But the jury is out whether Pelosi was deliberately using the military term or if it was just an interesting coincidence.
