The current House Minority Leader also vowed to “seek common ground” with Republicans during Wednesday’s post-election news conference.
Current House Minority Leader and Democrat Nancy Pelosi held a news conference Wednesday afternoon after Tuesday’s midterm elections, where she discussed her party’s major feat in taking back majority control of the House of Representatives.
Pelosi, who is poised to become the next speaker of the House, attributed her party’s numerous congressional victories to “its determination” to preserve the health care reform law passed during the Obama administration, Reuters reported.
“Healthcare was on the ballot and healthcare won,” she said during the conference. “We won because from the beginning we focused on healthcare.”
She also reiterated her willingness to work on a bipartisanship basis with Republicans, noting she had worked well with President George W. Bush during her previous term as speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011.
“We believe that we have a responsibility to seek common ground where we can,” Pelosi said according to NPR.“Openness and transparency, accountability [and] bipartisanship [are] a very important part of how we will go forward.”
The House’s top Democrat said she spoke to President Trump on election night and “specifically discussed” collaboration over the issue of infrastructure spending.
Trump mimicked Pelosi’s call for the parties to work together, telling reporters on Wednesday that he saw an opportunity for a “beautiful bipartisan solution” on various issues, but warned any negotiations could be compromised by “aggressive Democratic investigations” into his administration, NPR reported.
The Democrats plan to act as a check on the President and his administration, though Pelosi declined to take a hard stance on the issue of Trump’s personal finances during the news conference, CBS reported. Pelosi noted she believes the House has a “constitutional responsibility to have oversight” but that her party would not have “scattershot freelancing” in terms of pursuing investigations.
“When we go down any of these paths, we’ll know what we’re doing, and we’ll do it right, she said.
Pelosi exuded confidence when asked about her potential new position as speaker of the House, saying she believes she “is the best person to go forward to unify, to negotiate,” though according to NPR many in her party have called for “fresh leadership.”
President Trump believes this as well, tweeting this morning that Nancy Pelosi has “earned” the “great honor” of the position and “deserves to be chosen.”
Pelosi told supporters in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night that the Democrats would take steps to make Americans confident in the government again.
“We will drain the swamp of dark interest money in our elections,” she said. “Becuase when we do, Americans have greater confidence in everything their Congress works on, from health care to taxes to guns to clean air to clean water for our children, when they know that people’s interest will prevail.”
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