Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi tell their story based on an attempt to unite fragile democrats

Mr. Biden and Ms. Pelosi, who hope to start by approving additional measures to address the coronavirus pandemic, should bring together party members who have discussed issues such as expanding government health insurance, how much to spend to combat climate change and justice policy.

The duo must also work with Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer of New York to win enough Republicans to clear the House’s 60-vote limit for most projects. Senate control – which can determine the success or failure of much of the Democratic agenda – depends on the outcome of two January 5 races in Georgia.

The last time a Democratic president took office, the party had a comfortable majority in the House and, for a brief period, a super majority in the Senate. This time, with two House contests not called, Democrats have only a few seats more than the 218 required for a majority in the House. Biden hired three House legislators to serve in his government, which will temporarily further reduce the majority.

Ms. Pelosi will need to perform most of her caucus on Sunday, while seeking approval from the House floor for another term as a speaker. She faced no opposition within her party to remain her leader in the November vote.

She said it would be easier to bring her members together on a common agenda with a Democrat in the White House – when the legislation they pass is more likely to become law – than under President Trump.

“It is a very unifying thing,” Pelosi said in an interview, noting that some 100 Democratic House legislators have never served with a president of his party.

Biden, through a spokesman, declined to be interviewed. “The respect and admiration of the president-elect by Mayor Pelosi goes back decades,” said Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo. “Their strong friendship is rooted in a shared dedication to public service and devotion to their families and their faith.”

Biden, 78, and Pelosi, 80, have known each other long before taking on two of the top positions in American politics. Mrs. Pelosi remembers being invited to a party by Mr. Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Del., In the late 1980s, when she was a new member of Congress.

She knew the then Senator from Delaware through party politics, and at the meeting he introduced her to friends. The only problem: many heard her first name and mistook her for professional golfer Nancy Lopez.

“I didn’t want to disappoint them; I just smiled ”, remembers the speaker, laughing.

Over the years, the two have established a friendship in which they refer to by the first name, a rarity for Mrs. Pelosi. Both are Roman Catholics and cite their faith as a motivation for their service. Mrs. Pelosi said that they both carry simple rosaries in their pockets. The two went to Rome for the inauguration of Pope Francis in 2013.

When Biden, then a senator, defended the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, Pelosi helped to get votes in the House. Later, Ms. Pelosi oversaw foreign spending on the House Appropriations Committee, while Biden was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the two traveled together to Europe in 1997 with then President Bill Clinton.

During the Obama administration, Biden was frequently sent by the White House to discuss deals with the mayor, including the auto industry bailout and the Affordable Care Act, said John Lawrence, Pelosi’s then chief of staff.

“She felt that when she was talking to Biden, she was talking to a colleague and someone who understood the congressional side of White House-Congress relations better than other people in the White House,” he said.

Ms. Pelosi sometimes criticized Mr. Biden, particularly around his relationship with sexual harassment.

During the 1991 confirmation process for Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas, Ms. Pelosi and other lawmakers asked the Senate leadership, which included Mr. Biden – then chairman of the Judiciary Committee – to review Judge Thomas’s appointment to the light of the sexual harassment claims made by Anita Hill.

In April 2019, Ms. Pelosi said that the allegations made against Biden of improper touch did not disqualify him from running for president, but that he needed to be more careful.

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said Biden casually addresses the talks and is never in a hurry to make a deal. Ms. Pelosi is formal and works on a schedule, he said. But the two trust each other, he said.

Rohit Kumar, former deputy chief of staff for majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), Said that both Democrats know how to negotiate bipartisan deals, but that Biden may be more inclined to do so.

“Biden is more moderate than Pelosi,” said Kumar, who is now co-leader of PwC’s national tax office. “He is willing to close deals that she would not be willing to do.”

Kumar said that during a 2012 meeting on a series of tax increases and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff”, Ms. Pelosi spoke at length about her opposition to efforts to weaken the property tax.

Forty-eight hours later, Kumar said, Biden agreed to set property tax parameters at levels that would raise less money than Democrats wanted, although he did not accept the Republicans’ calls to repeal the tax. Since then, Democrats have unsuccessfully tried to raise property tax rates and reduce the exemption.

Ms. Pelosi is known as a skilled vote-talker, who seeks to find common ground among her members and keep her party together in difficult votes. Biden built his legislative career by forging relationships with Republicans and continued to seek them out as vice president, much to the dismay of some Democrats.

Some Democrats say their leaders are too quick to make deals with Republicans. In late December, while the leadership of both parties negotiated a coronavirus relief package, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., NY) tweeted: “A big difference between the GOP and the Democrats is that the GOP leverages their right flank for policy concessions and generate enthusiasm, while Democrats block their left flank in the basement bc they think it will make Republicans cooler with them. “

An intra-party fight may erupt over expanding access to healthcare, which Ms. Pelosi says is one of her main goals. Progressives want to extend Medicare to all Americans. Mr. Biden and Ms. Pelosi, instead, proposed creating a public option to compete with private insurers.

The duo’s first challenge will be the coronavirus pandemic that killed more than 342,000 Americans, closed deals and slowed economic growth. Biden also said that he hopes to provide a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the United States without permanent legal status and to pursue policies to address climate change.

“I have no doubt that she will be in the room at all times,” said Phil Schiliro, the White House representative for Congress in the Obama administration, about Pelosi. “There will be no important conversation that the president-elect does not include.”

Former Senator Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Biden’s longtime adviser who is making his presidential transition, said that Democrats have always had a range of ideological views and that Biden joined the party behind him in the elections. from November .

“Democrats are not like Republicans, they do not march in sync and Nancy has always been able to keep that coalition together in the House,” said Kaufman. “It was the same coalition that helped the president-elect.”

—Richard Rubin contributed to this article.

Write to Natalie Andrews at [email protected] and Eliza Collins at [email protected].