Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful woman in congress, but politics aren't her whole life.
What's her relationship to wine and chocolate?
Did she ever get her laptop back?
Keep watching for the full story.
Nancy Pelosi's net worth has long been a topic of debate, with some claiming she's worth
hundreds of millions and others much less.
So, exactly how much wealth does she actually have?
Well, as Speaker of the House, Pelosi earns an annual salary of $223,500.
Pelosi has been in Congress for over 30 years, and her salary has increased over time from
$89,000 to the more than $200,000 it is today, owing to her changing positions and congressional
salary increases.
However, the bulk of Pelosi's wealth doesn't come from her congressional earnings.
Pelosi's husband Paul is extraordinarily wealthy.
As a San Francisco-based venture capitalist, he once spent $12 million to own a football
team in a now-defunct league.
While a nonfunctioning football team was not a good investment, Pelosi and her husband
have been smart about where they put their money.
Together they are estimated to own at least $57 million worth of property across the country,
including in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Napa Valley.
So what does all that mean for Pelosi's net worth?
All in all, the congresswoman is worth somewhere around $106 million, per USA Today.
It's safe to assume when you're Nancy Pelosi, you basically never stop working, but even
the most powerful woman in D.C. needs to cut loose from time to time.
Pelosi likes to retreat to her Napa Valley vineyard, where she grows her own grapes and
makes her own wine to blow off steam.
After scooping up the property in 2005, Pelosi successfully received permission from the
city to operate the winery and host weekly tastings on the property.
Interestingly, despite having permission to profit off the property, Pelosi and her husband,
Paul, haven't taken advantage of the opportunity.
As of December 2021, the vineyard still isn't open to the public for tasting or tours.
So, exactly what is included in the property?
Pelosi's vineyard sits on 16.55 acres and comes with two houses, a pool, and a tennis
court, per Velvet Ropes.
Pelosi probably doesn't get out to Napa as often as she'd like, but according to the
neighbors, there's no missing her when she's there.
In 2015, one of Pelosi's neighbors told the Los Angeles Times:
"When all the black SUVs are circling around the property — like planes gathering over
O'Hare Airport — that is when you know they are here."
The most surprising thing about Nancy Pelosi is just how late in life she started her career.
It seems like Pelosi has been around forever, but she didn't even run for office for the
first time until her youngest child was in college.
The reason?
Pelosi had her hands full at home with five kids to look after.
Don't think of Pelosi as some kind of overnight success, though.
She spent years balancing work and home life and building a name for herself as a force
to be reckoned with around San Francisco.
The first step in Pelosi's ascension to the top was starting a local democratic club which
she ran out of her house while her kids were little.
As they got older, she started picking up more responsibility until eventually, a friend
suggested she run for Congress, per Business Insider.
As for Pelosi's kids, they never felt neglected by their mom's packed schedule, though they
remember her being pretty darn busy.
Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra, told the Los Angeles Times:
"I remember her throughout my childhood with a telephone glued to her ear.
In the name of the Democratic Party, she's been on the phone for 32 years."
If you know anything about Nancy Pelosi's politics, then you probably already know she
doesn't agree with most of what Donald Trump has to say.
However, it might come as a surprise to learn that Pelosi doesn't just disagree with Trump.
She personally dislikes him.
According to Pelosi, her relationship with Trump was much more difficult than any president
who's been in power since she's held office.
Pelosi told Vanity Fair in 2019:
"While we had our differences of opinion — even with President George W. Bush — they believed
in governance.
Trump doesn't believe in governance.
So, it's very hard to see what would motivate him to do something really good and transformative."
As for Trump's opinion on Pelosi, well, let's just say there's no love lost on his side
either.
During his 2019 impeachment, Trump struggled to remain polite about his most vocal political
adversary.
Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham:
"I think she's a disgrace.
I actually don't think she's a talented person."
"She's a nasty, vindictive, horrible person."
In addition to raising a large family, Nancy Pelosi also grew up in one.
The speaker of the house was born far from her NorCal constituents in Baltimore, Maryland
where she was one of seven.
She can trace her passion for politics directly back to her dad, Thomas "Big Tommy" D'Alesandro
Jr. D'Alesandro was a three-time mayor of Baltimore and served as a congressman.
Pelosi wasn't the only one influenced by her father, her brother Thomas D'Alesandro III,
followed in his dad's footsteps and became mayor of Baltimore himself.
According to Jack Lapides, a politician from the area, the family, who once called Little
Italy its home and grew into a political dynasty, owes their success to their Italian roots.
Lapides told the Baltimore Sun in 2019:
"They stayed in Little Italy.
They were proud of their roots.
They didn't move outward.
They stuck to the neighborhoods, and they thought the neighborhoods were the most important
thing of the city.
We've always been a city of neighborhoods, and they were fabulous at recognizing it."
While she might have learned a thing or two about politics from her dad, Pelosi will be
the first to tell you he wasn't the reason she got into the biz.
Pelosit told The Washington Post:
"I was really forged by my kids."
It should come as no surprise that as a powerful woman in a male-dominated field, Nancy Pelosi
has faced her fair share of misogyny.
A lot could be said about the language that has been used to describe Pelosi's looks or
attitude over the years.
There are dozens of articles about her clothing, something that's rarely given the same amount
of attention when it comes to her male counterparts.
Her political rivals have used misogynistic verbiage to paint her in an unfavorable light.
However, Pelosi has faced the same amount of sexism from her supporters, as her daughter
Alexandra Pelosi told the Los Angeles Times:
"I often hear male politicians introduce her, and they always say how charming she is.
They never say how hard-working she is.
Well, she's worked harder than anybody else.
She's earned it."
Pelosi isn't one to take it lying down though.
In 2020, as soon as Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the presidential race, Pelosi spoke
up and blamed sexism for the reason Warren struggled so much.
"I so wish that we had a woman president of the United States, and we came very close
to doing that."
When asked at a press conference why she thought Warren couldn't pull out a win, Pelosi had
this to say:
"But I do think there's a certain element of misogyny that is, that is there."
Nancy Pelosi's dislike of Donald Trump is well documented, but what about Barack Obama?
It would stand to reason that since Pelosi and Obama are both Democrats, the congresswoman
at least got along with Trump's predecessor.
However, by the time Obama left office in 2017, things between the formerly close allies
were strained.
Things started out on a good note, though.
According to those close to the former president, Pelosi was steadfastly loyal to Obama.
One source described Pelosi as Obama's closest relationship with anyone on Capitol Hill.
An Obama aide told Time in 2018:
"More than anyone else in the United States Congress, House or Senate, Democrat or Republican.
She always kept her word to him, and she always delivered."
The relationship became strained in 2012 when Obama reportedly refused to appear at a fundraising
event for Pelosi.
Something she saw as a slap in the face, given the amount of loyalty she'd shown him over
the years.
After spending years in the spotlight, Nancy Pelosi is no stranger to scandal.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the dialogue around whether or not to wear
a mask was becoming political, Pelosi was caught on camera visiting a California salon
that was supposed to be closed to inside service due to rising infection numbers.
She was slammed by her critics as a hypocrite.
Pelosi, however, insists that she was set up.
"It was clearly a set up.
I take responsibility for falling for a setup by a neighborhood salon that I've gone to
for years."
Pelosi's personal stylist spoke out in her defense and claimed that the salon owner set
them both up.
He insisted that he had the salon owner's permission to use the business before going
through with the appointment.
Pelosi refused to apologize for the event and even insisted that the salon, and its
owner, owed her an apology.
Nancy Pelosi is a mother of five, and we're willing to bet that being Pelosi's kid can
feel like some seriously big shoes to fill.
But, while most of her kids are busy doing politics or business-related things like mom
and dad, one of them, Alexandra Pelosi, is making a name for herself as a filmmaker.
Pelosi's youngest daughter has directed and produced 13 documentaries with a focus on
the various social-political issues facing the United States.
Some of the topics she's covered include gun control and far-right religious organizations.
Her first film, Journeys with George, captured the final days of the George W. Bush campaign.
Her 2020 film, American Selfie, examines the growing political divide in middle America,
which Alexandra believes is related to a global increase in social media use.
Alexandra told The Guardian:
"Every single person I talked to, no matter who they were going to vote for or if they
weren't going to vote at all or didn't even know who was on the ballot, would say: social
media is destroying our mental health.
It's destroying our conversation."
Pelosi, who hails from San Francisco, likes to keep a little bit of her home district
in her D.C. office.
According to staffers, Pelosi insists on keeping a jar full of Ghirardelli chocolates in her
congressional office.
Pelosi's love of chocolate runs so deep that instead of amping up on coffee every morning,
she apparently prefers to have a bowl of chocolate ice cream.
Pelosi told Food and Wine in 2017:
"I've been eating dark chocolate ice cream for breakfast for as long as I can remember.
I don't see it as different from having a cup of coffee.
The flavors keep getting darker and darker, which I love."
Translation?
She loves chocolate, and you better not forget it.
To keep that little tidbit on everyone's mind, Pelosi has been known to dawn a campy sweatshirt
emblazoned with the words "Hand Over the Chocolate and Nobody will Get Hurt," although admittedly,
she doesn't usually wear it to work.
Need more proof of Pelosi's love of chocolate?
Check out this video of Pelosi blind testing the candy while on The Late Show with Stephen
Colbert:
"I would say this is the Ghirardelli."
It goes without saying that Nancy Pelosi sure knows her chocolate!
Nancy Pelosi is no stranger to bad press, but in 2021 she found herself on the front
page for an entirely new reason.
During the capital riots on January 6, rioters broke into Pelosi's office, sat at her desk,
rifled through her papers, and most alarmingly, stole her laptop.
Riley June Williams was accused of taking the laptop and trying to sell it to Russia,
as it reportedly contained classified information.
Williams was identified after an ex saw her on TV and called the FBI, per ABC.
Representative Joaquin Castro told reporters in February,
"At least one of the insurrectionists may have intended to steal information and give
it to a foreign adversary.
According to charging documents, Riley Williams allegedly helped steal a laptop from Speaker
Pelosi's office to 'send the computer device to a friend in Russia' [...]"
It seems unlikely that Williams successfully sold the laptop to Russia.
After all, it's not like she has Vladimir Putin on speed dial.
Nonetheless, the laptop remains missing.
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