Nancy Pelosi celebrates Democratic House wins and bizarrely cheers pre-existing conditions
- House minority leader Nancy Pelosi was jubilant as she celebrated the Democratic Party's comeback in the House of Representatives following Tuesday's midterm elections.
- Pelosi said Democrats would work to restore checks and balances and be a buffer against Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's "assault" on Medicare, Medicaid, affordable healthcare, and on Americans with pre-existing conditions.
- "Let's hear more for pre-existing medical conditions," she said, as the crowd broke into applause.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi struck a jubilant tone late Tuesday night when she celebrated Democrats flipping the House of Representatives in the closely watched midterm elections.
"Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans," Pelosi said. "It's about restoring the Constitution and checks and balances to the Trump administration. It's about stopping the GOP and [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell's assault on Medicare, Medicaid, affordable health care, and millions of Americans living with pre-existing medical conditions."
Pelosi added, "Let's hear more for pre-existing medical conditions," as the crowd broke into applause.
Just after 10 p.m. ET, multiple media outlets projected that Democrats had flipped a dozen red seats in all corners of the country - including in Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.
Tuesday night's results mark a comeback for the Democratic Party, which last held control of the House in 2010, and will fundamentally shift the balance of power in Washington.
Flipping seats in every corner of the country, Democrats beat Republican incumbents with an energized and expanded voter base fueled by the anti-Trump resistance movement. A surge in millennial and black voters, coupled with a deep gender gap, helped propel Democrats to victory in dramatically different districts.
And Democrats ran the most diverse slate of candidates for the House in US history. Women and people of color made up nearly 60% of Democratic House candidates.
Enthusiasm for Tuesday's elections - exhibited in huge voter turnout - reached levels unprecedented in modern history with 28 states far exceeding (and some doubling) 2014 midterm turnout.
"In stark contrast to the GOP Congress," Pelosi said Tuesday, "a Democratic Congress will be led with transparency and openness. So that the public can see what's happening and how it affects them and that they can weigh in with the members of Congress and with the President of the United States."
Pelosi added that Democrats would hold the president accountable and strive for bipartisanship when possible.
"We will have a responsibility to find our common ground where we can, stand our ground where we can't, but we must try," she said. "A Democratic Congress will work for solutions that bring us together because we have all had enough of division."
Earlier Tuesday, Pelosi cautioned against speculation that Democrats will impeach Trump now that they've regained control of the House.
Asked about the move, Pelosi said, "It depends on what happens in the [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller investigation, but that is not unifying and I get criticized in my own party for not being in support of it. But I'm not. If that happens, it would have to be bipartisan, and the evidence would have to be so conclusive."
Pelosi said she and other Democrats would instead focus on addressing the concerns of everyday voters.
"They want to see us working to get that done for them," Pelosi said. "They want resolve. They want peace, and that's what we'll bring them."