Nancy Pelosi is once again Washington's most powerful woman, poised to reclaim the US House speaker's gavel Thursday as opponent-in-chief to an impulsive and unpredictable president. With President Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans still controlling the Senate, Pelosi’s return to the speaker’s office to lead a Democratic majority with its biggest freshmen class since Watergate shakes up the dynamic in Washington even beyond the new era of divided government. Speaking with the show ahead of being sworn in as House speaker for the second time on Thursday, Pelosi was asked whether special counsel Robert Mueller should abide by the Department of Justice’s guidance stating a sitting president can’t be indicted in his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. And while Justice Department guidelines suggest a sitting president can’t be indicted, Pelosi called that “an open discussion.”

“Everything indicates that a president can be indicted after he is no longer president,” she said. When a vote was taken on the House floor on Jan. 3, she won by a vote of 220 to 192, with 15 Democrats voting for someone else or voting “present.” The close vote illustrated, once again, Pelosi’s skill in coalition-building and counting votes, but also that some Democrats – particularly new members and those in swing districts – are dissatisfied with her as the party’s standard bearer.
The 116th United States Congress, which contains a record number of women and minorities, is sworn in at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the second time, the first being from 2007–2011.