GREENVILLE – As the main attraction of a fundraiser on Friday night for South Carolina Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is committed to leading Congress in the “difficult” process of launching a security inquiry. impeachment against President Donald Trump.
“None of us came to Congress to impeach a president,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. “This is a very sad time for our country. This is a very dark time for our country.”
Pelosi’s visit to the interior of the state came at a particularly stimulating time in political history, about a week and a half after she opened a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump’s efforts to enlist a foreign country to investigate a potential son’s son. 2020 political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
In a nearly 30-minute speech to the crowd of about 500 Democratic donors in Greenville, Pelosi listed a plethora of legislative priorities, including reducing health costs and prescribing drug prices, financing infrastructure improvements and strengthening ethics laws. .
But she also argued that Congress has a duty to uphold the constitution and democratic principles.
“We are legislating,” said Pelosi. “Unfortunately, we also have to investigate.”
The visit served as a rare embrace by Democrats in South Carolina to a political figure whose San Francisco national progressive mark has long been viewed by some as politically toxic in the south.
Republicans have tried to use Pelosi as a club against Democratic candidates in South Carolina for years, regularly associating them with her, regardless of whether they have known her or even just spoken favorably about her.
So it was no surprise that SC GOP President Drew McKissick reacted with joy when he heard that Pelosi was visiting the state.
“Democrats are helping us get our message across by contrast,” said McKissick. “So I would like to thank Nancy Pelosi for coming to South Carolina, reminding people of how radical and liberal the Democratic Party has become on all issues.”
Several hundred Trump supporters protested Pelosi’s visit outside the Hyatt Regency hotel where she was speaking, holding signs with messages like “Pelosi you lie” and “stop the witch hunt.”
Republicans are particularly eager to link Pelosi to the state’s most vulnerable Democratic representative, US Representative Joe Cunningham of Charleston, who did not attend Friday night’s dinner.
Since the start of his campaign for the 2018 congress in a historically republican district, Cunningham has sought to distance himself from Pelosi by promising to vote for someone else as mayor – a promise he kept after his frustrated victory when, instead, he voted for American deputy Cheri Bustos, D-Ill.
But Pelosi shouted at Cunningham, along with several other South Carolina Democrats, for getting his bill to ban offshore drilling approved in the House.
Democrats, however, expressed little concern. Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist from SC, noted that Republicans employed a similar tactic before the 2018 midterm elections only to lose their majority in the House and longtime Republican Party seats, like the one now held by Cunningham.
“He made it clear that he is himself,” said Seawright of Cunningham. “Her vows and track record reflect that, and I think that every time they try to touch him with her, they just look as crazy as they are.”
Pelosi has also long been proclaimed a prolific national fund-raiser for Democrats, a skill that helped her climb the ranks of Congress in the first place and will help fill the party’s coffers before what must be a combative 2020 electoral cycle. .
SC Democratic Party chairman Trav Robertson said he was still unsure how much money the fundraiser would bring, but rejected any notion that Pelosi’s presence would pose political risks.
“We will no longer allow Republicans to control the narrative and we will not allow them to identify us and define who we are and what we stand for,” said Robertson.
In closing his comments, Pelosi did some of the growing tension between the legislative and executive branches over impeachment with a playful nod to Trump’s business history.
“Donald, you owned a casino,” she said. “You know that the House always wins.”
Follow Jamie Lovegrove on Twitter @jslovegrove.