How Nancy Pelosi came to call the shots

Before she was a meme staring down then-President Trump in the White House, and before she became arguably the most powerful woman in American political history, Nancy Pelosi was a San Francisco mother of five running for Congress for the first time.

Pelosi had been working for 25 years for democratic causes, as a volunteer and successful fundraiser. She'd never held elected office. And her rivals in that 1987 special election in California's 5th Congressional District were skeptical that she was fit for the job. But she won, and began a Congressional career that has been uniquely formative in the American political landscape for decades.

From volunteer to Speaker of the House

Pelosi once told Washington Post Columnist Karen Tumulty, "Nobody ever gives away power. If you want to achieve that, you go for it. But when you get it, you must use it."

Recalling her early days of volunteering with the Democratic party, Pelosi says she never planned on becoming involved in politics.

"I said, 'Well, I'm here for the issues. I love what I'm doing.'"

She joined All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly for a recent interview to reflect on how she found herself in this position of power, and how it has related to the current election cycle, particularly influencing President Joe Biden's decision to end his presidential campaign.

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How Pelosi utilized her influence

Just weeks before Biden's decision to step down from seeking reelection, Pelosi went on MSNBC's Morning Joe, and made her stance abundantly clear:

"It's up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We're all encouraging him to to make that decision, because time is running short."

Biden had said the day before he was saying in the race.

But in making those comments, a new wave of discourse began online and within party lines regarding Biden's capacity to win the election. "My concern was not about whether he would run or not, but whether they would have the campaign that was necessary, and we want more visibility of him and the rest," Pelosi told NPR.

"It was not a question at that time of whether he would run or not. It was a question of whether they would have the campaign that was necessary to win, too." Pelosi added that she believed the biggest danger to the United States was Donald Trump being reelected. And when pushed further on if she was involved with Biden's decision to step down?

"I'll tell you what I did not do. I did not call one person. I read in the press that I was burning up the phone lines; I didn't call one person, people called me. Some of them I received their calls. Some of I didn't even have time to. I never said, 'Put Michael Donilon [senior advisor to Biden] on the phone.' Never."