‘Nadir for the party’: US Democrats edge towards civil war

Nancy Pelosi is Democratic party royalty: 38 years in Congress, eight as Speaker of the House of Representatives and the first woman to hold the job, she is one of Washington’s toughest political operators.

Yet for Saikat Chakrabarti, Pelosi, 85, has come to embody the malaise at the heart of a party he said has lost touch with Americans and failed to muster a coherent resistance to President Donald Trump. He wants to oust her from Congress and has launched a primary challenge for her…