Olivia: Between 2017 and 2021, threats against members of Congress nearly doubled to almost ten thousand. Jackson: Ten thousand. Wow. That’s not just angry emails or nasty tweets. That’s a number with teeth. And today, we’re looking at the story of when one of those threats broke through a window in the middle of the night. Olivia: It’s a story that lies at the heart of Nancy Pelosi’s memoir, Leadership's Price: My Time Leading the U.S. House of Representatives. And this isn't just any political memoir. It's written from the perspective of someone who not only broke the "marble ceiling" to become the first female Speaker but has been a central, and often demonized, figure in American politics for over 35 years. Jackson: Right, so she’s not just recounting history; she’s lived at the very center of the storm. And in this book, she details the moment that storm came home in the most brutal way possible. Olivia: Exactly. The book opens with a preface called "Know Your Why," where she talks about faith and purpose. But the first real chapter plunges you into the absolute terror of October 28, 2022. Jackson: I can’t even imagine. So take us to that night. What actually happened?

Olivia: The book paints a chilling picture. It’s around two in the morning at the Pelosi home in San Francisco. Nancy is in Washington D.C., so her husband, 82-year-old Paul Pelosi, is home alone, asleep. He’s woken up by a man standing over his bed, a man who broke in through a back window. Jackson: Oh, man. That is everyone’s worst nightmare. Olivia: And the first thing the intruder says is, "Where's Nancy? Where's Nancy?" The same chant that echoed through the halls of the Capitol on January 6th. The man is holding a hammer and a handful of zip ties. Jackson: The intent is just so terrifyingly clear. He wasn't there to rob the place. He was there for her. Olivia: Precisely. And Paul Pelosi, in this moment of incredible danger, keeps his wits about him. He tells the attacker that Nancy isn't there, that she's in D.C. He tries to stay calm. The attacker says he'll wait. Paul, thinking fast, says he needs to use the bathroom. Jackson: A small, normal request in a completely abnormal situation. He's trying to create some space, some opportunity. Olivia: And in the bathroom, he manages to pull out his phone and dial 911. The book includes parts of his testimony, and it's just remarkable. He’s speaking in code to the dispatcher, trying not to alarm the attacker who is standing right there. He says there’s a gentleman in his house and that he’s waiting for his wife. He gives his name and address. The dispatcher, thankfully, understands something is deeply wrong and sends police. Jackson: That 911 call is the stuff of nightmares. The courage and clarity to do that under that kind of pressure is just astounding. What happens when the police arrive? Olivia: This is where it gets even more horrific. The police arrive and see the two men through the glass of the front door. They order them to drop the hammer. Paul has his hand on it, trying to de-escalate, but the attacker has his hand over Paul's. The attacker says, "Uh, no," and then, right in front of the police, he wrenches the hammer away and strikes Paul Pelosi in the head. Jackson: In front of the police? He was that committed to the violence. Olivia: He struck him multiple times. The police tackled the assailant immediately. Paul was left unconscious in a pool of his own blood with a fractured skull. He was rushed to the hospital for emergency brain surgery. Jackson: It’s just sickening. And the book must go into the family's reaction. How does a family even begin to process that? Nancy is across the country, their kids are scattered everywhere. Olivia: It’s utterly heartbreaking. She describes being woken up by the Capitol Police at her apartment in D.C. and the surreal, horrifying conversation that followed. Then she had to make the calls to her five children, waking them up in different time zones with the news. Jackson: I was really struck by a quote from her daughter, Alexandra, a filmmaker. What did she say to her mother in the ICU? Olivia: It's devastating. Alexandra looks at her father, unconscious and intubated, and says to her mother, "If I had known what we were signing up for, if I had known this was where it was going to go, I would never have given you my blessing thirty-five years ago." Jackson: Wow. That just cuts right to the bone. It’s the voice of a child seeing her parent suffer because of a job. It perfectly captures the "price" in the book's title. It’s not an abstract political cost; it’s this. It’s blood on the floor of your home. Olivia: And Pelosi writes about how their home remains a crime scene in their minds. Eighteen months later, she says, the signs of the break-in are impossible to avoid. It’s a constant, physical reminder of the trauma. The attack wasn't just on Paul; it was an assault on their family, their safety, their peace. Jackson: And it’s a direct line from the political rhetoric, the demonization, the "Where's Nancy?" chants. It’s not a random act of violence. It’s the logical conclusion of a certain kind of politics. Olivia: She makes that connection explicitly. She calls it the "politics of personal destruction." And that’s the terrifying human cost.

Jackson: It's almost impossible to comprehend that level of personal cost. Which makes you wonder... what is the leadership, the power, that inspires such intense loyalty from her supporters and such terrifying hatred from her opponents? After seeing the price, you have to ask, what does the leadership part actually look like? How does she operate? Olivia: That’s the other half of the book, and it’s a masterclass in political mechanics. She has this famous saying she uses with her Democratic Caucus: "Our diversity is our strength, our unity is our power." Her entire leadership philosophy is about taking a wildly diverse group of people—from the most progressive members to moderate Blue Dogs—and forging them into a unified voting bloc. She uses metaphors like a loom weaving different threads together, or a kaleidoscope where the same pieces form different patterns depending on the issue. Jackson: That sounds great in theory, but in practice, getting politicians to agree on anything is like herding cats. How does she actually do it? Olivia: Let’s look at a classic example she details: the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in 2010. This was the policy that banned openly gay people from serving in the military. The repeal was attached as an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill. Jackson: Okay, so a must-pass bill. Seems straightforward. Olivia: Not at all. Because many of the most progressive members of her caucus had a principled stance against voting for any defense spending bill. They saw it as funding war. So you have this paradox: the very people who most wanted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" were ideologically opposed to the only vehicle that could make it happen. Jackson: Right, so she was basically asking them to hold their noses and vote for something they hated to achieve something they loved. How do you sell that? Olivia: Through relentless communication and trust. She brought them in and laid it out. She explained that the Republicans would not provide the votes, so if they didn't vote for the bill, the amendment would fail, and the policy would remain. She wasn't asking them to abandon their principles, but to make a strategic choice. She got them to agree to hold their votes. They would watch the tally, and if their votes were needed to pass the bill, they would provide them at the last minute. Jackson: That's fascinating. It’s not about forcing them, but making them partners in the strategy. They get to maintain their symbolic opposition but still be the heroes of the final outcome. Olivia: Exactly. And the bill passed. It was a huge victory for LGBTQ+ rights, and it happened because she understood the internal dynamics of her caucus. She knew who needed what, and how to frame the choice. That’s the "inside" game. But her leadership is also about the "outside" game—negotiating with the opposition. Jackson: And the book gives some pretty starkly contrasting examples of that, especially when you compare her dealings with the Bush administration versus the Trump administration. Olivia: The difference is night and day. She tells the story of negotiating the 2008 economic stimulus package with President George W. Bush's Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson. The country was on the verge of a recession. They needed to act fast. Jackson: A Republican White House and a Democratic Congress. That sounds like a recipe for gridlock. Olivia: You'd think so. But Pelosi and Paulson negotiated in secret to build trust and avoid media leaks. The big sticking point was whether the tax rebates would go to low-income workers who didn't pay federal income tax. Democrats insisted on it; Republicans were opposed. After intense back-and-forth, they reached a compromise: rebates for anyone who earned at least $3,000 a year. It was a huge, progressive win that got money to the people who needed it most. It worked because both sides, while disagreeing, operated from a shared set of facts and a shared goal of preventing economic collapse. Jackson: Okay, so that’s what it looks like when both sides are playing chess on the same board. What happens when the other side flips the board over? Tell me about dealing with Trump. Olivia: She describes it as entering a different reality. She recounts a 2019 meeting about a massive, $2 trillion infrastructure bill. This was something both parties claimed to want. They’d had a productive initial meeting. But when the congressional leadership returned to the White House to finalize the deal, Trump walked in, furious. Jackson: What was he angry about? Olivia: He said Pelosi had offended him by publicly accusing him of a "cover-up" related to the ongoing investigations. He spoke for less than three minutes, announced he wouldn't work with them as long as they were investigating him, and stormed out of the room. The infrastructure deal was dead. Jackson: So the negotiation wasn't about policy or numbers. It was about his personal feelings. How can you even strategize around that? Olivia: You can't. And that’s the point she makes. Leadership and negotiation require a foundation of truth and good faith. With Paulson, they could argue over policy because they agreed on the basic economic facts. With Trump, she says, the facts were irrelevant. The discussion was derailed by his personal grievances and false claims, like when he spent the beginning of their first meeting insisting he had won the popular vote. Jackson: So you go from a high-stakes chess match with Bush's team to... I don't know, trying to reason with a tornado. Olivia: That’s a good way to put it. And it culminated in that famous moment at the 2020 State of the Union address, after his first impeachment. She describes how he refused to shake her outstretched hand. As he spoke, she kept track of what she considered to be lies on her copy of the speech. By the end, she felt the entire speech was such a "manifesto of mistruths" that she stood up and, in full view of the cameras, tore it in half. Jackson: A purely symbolic act, but a powerful one. It was a visual representation of the breakdown she’s describing. A rejection of the entire premise of his speech. Olivia: It was her saying, "This document, this reality you're presenting, is worthless." It was the ultimate expression of what happens when you can't find common ground because you don't even share a common reality.

Olivia: And when you put it all together, you see this incredible, and frankly, terrifying, duality. The very skills that make her such a formidable leader—the ability to unify a caucus, to win legislative fights, to stand up to presidents—are the same things that make her a target for such intense, personal, and violent hatred. Jackson: That’s the whole story right there. The power and the price are two sides of the same coin. The more effective she is inside the Capitol, the bigger the target on her back, and on her family, outside of it. Olivia: Her effectiveness is what fuels the demonization. In the book, she’s not just recounting political victories; she's laying out the evidence for why she became the villain in so many narratives. Each successful negotiation, each piece of landmark legislation, added to the myth and the danger. Jackson: It leaves you asking a really tough question: In our current political climate, is the price of leadership becoming too high for anyone to pay? When the cost isn't just losing an election, but potentially the safety of your family, who is going to be willing to step up? Olivia: That’s a question we should all be thinking about. It goes far beyond one person or one party. It’s about the health of our entire system. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Find us on our socials and join the conversation. Jackson: It’s a heavy one, but an important one. This book really forces you to confront it. Olivia: It certainly does. This is Aibrary, signing off.