Michael Kirk, director of the new Frontline documentary 'Pelosi's Power,' joins Cheddar Politics to discuss House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's long career as a Democratic leader in Congress.

Cheddar Politics

New Frontline Documentary Charts Nancy Pelosi's Path to Power

Welcome back to cheddar politics. I'm Megan prats in Washington D. C. Nancy Pelosi has been a giant in american politics for decades. The first woman to serve as speaker of the house has endured relentless criticism and sexism throughout her time in Congress and has overcome it to become one of the most powerful political figures in modern history. Her path to power and the arc of her career have now been put together into a new PBS frontline documentary. So joining us now for more on this is Michael Kirk, director of that new frontline documentary called quote Pelosi's Power, Great name Michael. It's so great to have you. Why Nancy Pelosi, what drew you to this project charting her career in particular? Well, as you mentioned, I mean in the first place she's a blast to make a film about because there's so many incredibly interesting things that she's been in the middle of and a lot of people who want to talk about her, the people who like her and the people who don't really like her. As you said, she's been the most powerful woman in american politics for Almost 20 years, 25 years. I've been in Congress since 1987. Um and she's been at the heart right now of the deep division that's going on in american politics. So she's a great window into what that's happened. She's a combatant in there and some people say she's the reason or she certainly hasn't helped things anne. So I really think that's the most interesting question at the heart of it, which is how much of this is on her. I love that question. I think that's so important because I remember in the 2010 midterms getting mailers that I lived in Virginia at the time that only had President Obama, then President Obama and speaker of the house nancy Pelosi on them to encourage voting for republicans. I didn't even know who the republican candidate was, right because it didn't matter. And how do you think she's become so polarizing and how much I gotta ask you, Does her sex her gender have to play in the fact that she's so easily sort of the boogeyman in this story. I've made a lot of films in Washington, probably 50 or more and over the decades. And it is one of the more sexist environments in America. When we decided to make this film, We, we wanted to make sure we had a number of women who had survived that trajectory and others who had a perspective on it from outside. And that's always the first thing most women we interviewed said was sexism is the fundamental hurdle. She had to climb over. And it's been part of why the republicans felt comfortable. I think really, and even like it's a necessity to attack her that she had somehow stepped out of the role that she was supposed to play as a woman. She of course had raised five Children. She had five babies in six years. She had raised five Children without a nanny without a lot of help. So she was, she knew how to organize things and, And, and waited until they were kind of grown up to get to Congress. So she was 47, it wasn't like she was leaving any kids at home. I think she covered that base as well when she got there. But I think it's a big, it's a big part of what Pelosi bumps into and has bumped into all of her life. I love that perspective as someone with two Children who is like very done. I'm very much an all I want to ask you about Pelosi's father because he was really sort of the architect of her political career from a very young age, he was the mayor of Baltimore thomas, d'alesandro to the point that when she is voted for, for speaker every two years or for majority leader, they invoke the fact all the Maryland members of congress invoked the fact that she is a child of Maryland. They're very proud of it. How much did he influence her, her massive career in politics? Somebody in the film says a great line that nancy Pelosi was raised around power in her house in Baltimore and it was almost like electricity or water running through the house. She and she, it's absolutely true that she is, it is every part of her. We talked to lots of people who said nancy. Pelosi is not a Pelosi from san Francisco California, she is in d'Alessandro from Baltimore Maryland where her father was a kind of word boss, you know, backslapping, handshaking uh kind of a guy, she ran a thing for him called the favor file. She and her mom When she's a little girl, she's 11 years old and she's running this thing called favor file where people would line up at the door of their house, come in, ask for a favor, get me a job, get me out of jail and put somebody else in jail and they would write it and Anthony would write it in the book and say, okay, we'll take care of it. Ah And by the way, you knew on the other end of that favor that you would ask for the mayor was going to show up someday or somebody from the mayor and ask a favor of you. She does that. Now that's just ingrained into her. Lots of people tell me they've never seen anybody who likes and grasps and uses power better than nancy Pelosi. So it's there from the beginning there from her dad and palpable in Washington politics in a way that it's not so much from new younger members. But boy does she have it? And it goes all the way back Michael, I wanna, I wanna let you got to get to use her own words to explain this massive role that she's had as the first female speaker and why she's been so effective. I want to play a small clip of that. Take a look, I would say, respect, listening consensus building and people think that we have a top down thing. We really never have, no matter who might say that or think it, it's always been bubble up now, nancy Pelosi has not been afraid of hardball, so respect and listening. A little bit of a surprise answer. Tell me what that that uh, that sort of came about. How did that come about? And did she talk about the fact that she definitely didn't shy away from tough fights? She she certainly likes to fight her. The phrase she likes to say is I wake up every morning and I eat nails. I put on my battle armor and I eat nails for breakfast and I go into the congress and others tell us that there's when you go in her office and she wants something, there's a, there's a little dish of chocolate from Gr Dilly Chocolates, which is a san Francisco company, but also right next to her, a bunch of autographed baseball bats from the san Francisco giants. So you can go the sweet way or you can go the hard way nancy wants something from you. But that's apparently the message she's sending. She knows everything. They tell us about everybody in the Congress kids names where they are, what their troubles have been, what their needs are. She's she's in, she's in at the heart of everybody's, uh, needs wants and what it's going to take to get them to vote for a piece of legislation or how she could get them to back away from an attack on her. She's she's got the place wired. Oh, I think you're exactly right. Michael. I can't wait to see this documentary. Michael Kirk is director of the new frontline documentary Pelosi's Power. Thank you so much for that insight.