'Madame Speaker' Nancy Pelosi rattles Donald Trump as Democrats storm back to power in diverse, historic 116th Congress

New York: In the midst of a government shutdown that has lasted 13 days already and left 800,000 workers without pay, cheering Democrats led by Nancy Pelosi, 78, roared back to power in the House of Representatives as the 116th Congress took office and ushered in a historically diverse class of freshmen ready to confront US president Donald Trump in a new era of divided government. A “political earthquake” and “nightmare scenario for Trump” is how Washington DC insiders are framing the shift in power today when the most female, most racially diverse House in American history swept into the capital city. Democrats control 235 seats compared with 199 for House Republicans after the “blue wave” midterms in November 2018. 2019 is going to be a terrible year for Donald Trump or ‘Individual 1’ as an ongoing criminal case labels him.  While Trump gets tossed into the frying pan, a woman Speaker will be in power in the US Congress and Trump has no idea what kind of power she wields because his Republican House never did anything more than take orders from him. For Richard Nixon, the worst time was  1974, for Bill Clinton, it was 1998 and Trump is in that moment and the year is just beginning. Robert Mueller is already snapping at Trump heels,  the House Democrats are readying to pounce on him now. Losing no time on Thursday, Pelosi swiftly drew two lines in the sand for Trump, who she says “may not know how to deal with powerful women”. Pelosi fired the first bombshell of her first day as Speaker, suggesting that indicting a sitting president is not off the table. Democrats now control 13 committees with subpoena power which can pose incredible legal peril for Donald Trump. “We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason. And we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason”, Pelosi said on the Today show. “We did not come to play”, the freshman class of 2019 has made clear to the White House which continues to live in its parallel universe of a border wall funding demand that was Trump’s bedrock promise in 2016. Both the chairs of the House Intelligence Committee and the Finance Committee have confirmed on Thursday night that they will begin investigations into the Donald Trump world “immediately”. [caption id=“attachment_5832931” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  US Speaker Nancy Pelosi. AP[/caption] First order of business on a historic day is Democratic effort to re-open the government. The Pelosi-led House is voting later tonight EST and will push Trump and his party to the wall on this on their Day One. Trump, for his part, is not backing off from his $5 billion wall demand but the pressure is cranking up as the next pay day approaches rapidly - 11 January. The new Democratic majority has already sown fear among the Republican ranks. With most Senators having no direct line to the president and their individual reputations being torn to shreds over the shutdown standoff, the first rumblings of discord have begun in the Republican controlled Senate. They don’t know what the next crisis will explode. Will it be a Robert Mueller report, will it be an indiction of someone in the White House or House Democrats-led investigations that embarrass the president? With nowhere to run or hide, Republicans are in a bind while Trump does not care for anything other than what right wing commentators are telling him. Trump, who has tangled with Pelosi in the past and is sure to do so again, called her election by House colleagues “a tremendous, tremendous achievement.” So far, he has not attacked her the way he does other Democrats because Trump obsessors say he genuinely respects Pelosi’s clout across the aisle in Congress. More likely, he’s trying to make nice because of the looming threat of a torrent of investigations that puts his family in the crosshairs.

First day of a new era. 💪🏾😍 pic.twitter.com/GeGv6xvJuv

— Rep. Barbara Lee (Archived) (@RepBarbaraLee) January 3, 2019

Pelosi defied history in returning to the speaker’s office after eight years in the minority, overcoming internal opposition from Democrats demanding a new generation of leaders. She will be the first to regain the gavel since legendary Sam Rayburn of Texas in 1955. Pelosi, elected speaker 220-192, took the gavel looking pleased as punch and in a Reaganesque speech, spoke of “a new dawn” in the November election, “the beauty of our Constitution” to provide checks and balances on power. As note takers began comparing this with the dark, doomsday “American carnage” speech Donald Trump began his presidency with, Pelosi invited scores of lawmakers’ kids to join her on the dais as she was sworn in, calling the House to order “on behalf of all of America’s children.” The new Congress is like none other. There are more women than ever before, and a new generation of Muslims, Latinos, Native Americans and African-Americans in the House is creating what academics call a reflective democracy, more aligned with the population of the United States. The Republican side in the House is still made up mostly of white men, and in the Senate Republicans bolstered their ranks in the majority. At least 5 or 6 of the incoming Democratic representatives have been elected from predominantly white voter areas. The House will be “for the people,” Pelosi said. She promised to “restore integrity to government” and outlined an agenda “to lower health costs and prescription drugs prices, and protect people with pre-existing medical conditions; to increase paychecks by rebuilding America with green and modern infrastructure from sea to shining sea.” Vice President Mike Pence swore in newly-elected senators, but Senate Republicans under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had no plans to consider the House bills to fund the government unless Trump agrees to sign them into law. That ensures the shutdown will continue, clouding the first days of the new session. McConnell said that Republicans have shown the Senate is “fertile soil for big, bipartisan accomplishments,” but that the question is whether House Democrats will engage in “good governance or political performance art.” It’s a time of stark national political division that some analysts say is on par with the Civil War era. Battle lines are drawn not just between Democrats and Republicans but within the parties themselves, splintered by their left and right flanks.