Pelosi in new biography: "Politics is every minute of every day"

Susan Page, USA Today's Washington bureau chief, conducted 10 interviews with Speaker Pelosi for a biography, "Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power," that's out April 20.

Pelosi encouraged friends and family members to cooperate with the book — including her husband, Paul.

A taste for Axios readers:

• Pelosi unloads on the Squad, at one point adopting a child-like voice when discussing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and offers the Squad this blunt advice: “You’re not a one-person show. This is the Congress of the United States.”
• "Mitch McConnell," the speaker said, "is not a force for good in the country. He is an enabler of some of the worst stuff, and an instigator of some of it on his own."
• Pelosi scoffs at President Obama for not being able to deliver his home state votes for Obamacare — "Why are we having a problem with Illinois?" — and bristles at Obama getting sole credit for the deals she got through Congress.
• The speaker said she learned the art of politics from her father, Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro: "What I learned from my father was everything ... I breathed it in ... Politics is every minute of every day. It is part of you."

Read an excerpt.