House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who’s aspiring to be the next Speaker, said Monday that Democrats should seek bipartisanship while also standing their ground on certain issues during the upcoming lame-duck session.
“As we travel to Washington for this lame duck period, House Democrats are anything but lame ducks,” Pelosi wrote in a Dear Colleague letter. “We are flying high and taking pride in the greatest Democratic victory in the House since 1974.”
Lawmakers are returning to Washington this week after the 2018 midterms gave Democrats a majority in the House for the first time in almost a decade.
“We have great opportunity, and therefore great responsibility to get results for the American people,” Pelosi added. “In the next few weeks, we need to be unified, find common ground with Republicans in our legislative engagements, but stand our ground when we must.”
{mosads}President Trump said last week that he hopes Pelosi and the White House can work together in certain areas. In remarks after the midterms, Pelosi expressed an interest in bipartisanship.
“We will strive for bipartisanship in the belief that we have a responsibility to seek common ground where we can,” Pelosi said during a press briefing, adding that Democrats must remain firm on issues they prioritize.
Trump said during his remarks Wednesday that if the Democrats try to investigate him, any bipartisan cooperation would end and he would adopt a “warlike posture.”
“They can play that game, but we can play it better, because we have a thing called the United States Senate,” Trump said. “It’ll go back and forth. And it’ll probably be very good for me politically.”
Pelosi has been critical of threats to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, but has tempered expectations about possible impeachment proceedings.
She told The Atlantic in an interview published Sunday that she will wait for irrefutable evidence before making any moves toward impeachment.