Nancy Pelosi, the 84-year-old former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and longtime leader of the House Democratic Caucus, was injured while traveling in Luxembourg and has been admitted to a hospital for evaluation, her office announced in a statement on Friday. Pelosi made history as the first woman to hold the Speaker position in the House.
“While traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation,” Pelosi spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement, per Reuters. “Speaker Emerita Pelosi is currently receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals. She continues to work.”
Pelosi stepped down from her role as Speaker of the House in 2023—a prestigious position that is second in the presidential line of succession after the vice president—but remains an active member of the House of Representatives. She was reelected in November for another two-year term starting on January 3. Pelosi was instrumental in passing Democratic President Joe Biden’s comprehensive $1 trillion infrastructure bill in 2022. She is also well-known for her intense clashes with now-President-elect Donald Trump during his first four years in office, including the memorable incident in 2020 when she tore up his State of the Union address on national television.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has voiced criticism of his party in the wake of Trump’s historic comeback victory, particularly regarding Pelosi and her involvement in the alleged plot to remove President Joe Biden from office. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Fetterman had warned of a significant surge in Trump’s popularity in Pennsylvania. The freshman senator noted that Trump shares a “special” connection with the state, particularly after a near-assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Fetterman has consistently maintained that President Biden — a Pennsylvania native with substantial working-class and union support throughout his political career — was a stronger candidate than Harris. He held this view even after Biden’s poor performance in the June debate, which triggered a secretive effort led by former President Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi to remove Biden from the ticket.
In a recent interview with Politico, Fetterman criticized Pelosi for her involvement in the plot and reiterated his belief that Biden was a stronger candidate than Harris. “People like [Nancy] Pelosi, she really tried to — what’s the word I’m looking for? — she embraced this ‘she’s the godmother, she’s the enforcer.’ And now she’s blaming Biden,” he said. “Well, you can’t have it both ways. You got what you wanted, and now you’re still blaming Biden.”
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