Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton share advice to Amanda Gorman on running for president

In honor of International Women’s Day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were at a virtual Q&A with youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman. At the event, Pelosi and Clinton had some advice to share for youths that are interested in getting into politics.

The virtual Q&A was sponsored by Pelosi and Clinton’s respective PACs, PAC to the Future and Onward Together Committee, both of which are aimed at electing women candidates and other Democratic candidates. The event was attended by 6,000 people. Gorman asked the pair what advice do they have for young women who aspire to enter public service and politics, also sharing her own aspiration to someday run for the presidency. Gorman received a lot of praise when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” during Joe Biden’s inauguration in January.

“When women are thinking about what path they take, they should feel very confident about who they are,” said Pelosi.

“You have the ability to express aspirations and give people a voice that they didn’t know they had, and a good leadership does that,” said Clinton. The former Secretary of State also shared how humor can help diffuse aggressive opposition so as to give the other person some space into becoming more conscious of their words.

“When people say outrageous, ignorant, intolerant, silly things -- and sometimes they don’t even know the impact of what they’re saying and how it lands, how it feels to women who are hearing it -- I think you can just kind of like ‘Really? Do you really mean that? I didn’t expect to hear that come out of you,’” added Clinton.

Meanwhile, following the passage of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill by the Senate, it is back to the House to pass the final version of the bill that would be on Biden’s desk. Pelosi praised the sweeping COVID relief bill during a press conference with senior House Democrats on Tuesday. The bill would mark the Biden administration’s first major legislative achievement, and Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues took turns in discussing the historic nature of the bill. The House Speaker added that she is confident in having all the Democratic votes necessary to pass the final version of the bill.