Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says America’s founders envisioned a Constitution that would be updated and expand freedoms — but that expansion has stopped “recently.”
The California Democrat addressed the Maryland General Assembly in Annapolis on Monday, where she received a resolution honoring her achievements. She told the state lawmakers that the founders declared, “We were all equal.”
“That was the vision,” Mrs. Pelosi said. “Thank God they made [the Constitution] amendable.”
Subsequent national leaders eventually abolished slavery and gave women the right to vote via the 13th and 19th amendments.
“We constantly expanded freedom and that always happened, until recently,” Mrs. Pelosi said, suggesting that freedoms have been curtailed — without mentioning President Trump or his Republican administration by name.
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Monday’s resolution in the Maryland General Assembly highlighted Mrs. Pelosi’s family roots in Baltimore, where she was raised. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was a member of the House of Delegates in 1926 and later mayor of Baltimore. Her brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, served as mayor and president of the Baltimore City Council.
House of Delegates Speaker Joseline Pena-Melnyk told Mrs. Pelosi, “welcome home” and acknowledged members of the Pelosi family who journeyed to the State House with their matriarch.
“I want to congratulate you on not having one but two women speakers of the House of Delegates,” Mrs. Pelosi told Ms. Pena-Melnyk, who succeeded Adrienne Jones as speaker.
Mrs. Pelosi, whose family immigrated from Sicily, applauded Ms. Pena-Melnyk’s immigrant roots, noting that Ms. Pena-Melnyk was born in the Dominican Republic.
“We are beautifully diverse,” Mrs. Pelosi said of America. “Our unity is our power.”
