Pelosi suggests 2020 outcome will help her decide whether to stay in Congress
WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who hopes to be speaker next year if Democrats win the House majority, suggested Monday that the outcome of the 2020 presidential election will factor into her decision on how long to stay in Congress.
The 78-year-old California Democrat has long signaled that she sees her congressional career coming to an end in the not-so-distant future.
Pelosi had been prepared to retire after the 2016 election if Democrat Hillary Clinton had won the presidency. But she decided to stay on after Republican Donald Trump won the election to ensure there would be a women at the negotiating table since the other top three congressional leaders are all men.
As Pelosi wraps up her 15th full term in the House and eighth term as Democratic leader, she acknowledges she is thinking about the right time to exit.
“There has to be a transition at some point in all of this,” she said Monday at CNN’s Inaugural CITIZEN Conference.
CNN correspondent Dana Bash, who was interviewing Pelosi at the event, asked about comments that Pelosi made to the Los Angeles Times last week.
“I see myself as a transitional figure,” Pelosi told the Times. “I have things to do. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love.”
Bash pressed Pelosi on whether she would only serve temporarily if elected speaker, and Pelosi provided the same answer she did to the Times.
“Well I’m not going to make myself a lame duck,” she said. “I wouldn’t advise that.”
Pelosi cited her “special understanding, institutional memory” of the legislative process as reasons for her to stick around for the time being. And she suggested that the outcome of the 2020 election, like 2016, will be a factor in her decision on how long to stay.
“We’ll see what happens in the presidential coming up,” she said, noting that race will start shortly after the midterms.
Pelosi said she has no plans to run for president herself, because she loves the legislative process.
“I’m trying to promote Jerry Brown to do it, but he’s not taking the bait,” she said of the California governor who is serving out his fourth term and retiring in January.
Pelosi offered no other indication of what Democrat she would like to see run in 2020 — or whether any Democrat besting Trump would be enough to convince her to retire. She likely won’t endorse anyone in the Democratic presidential primary or reveal whether she’s ready to retire until after the general.
‘Pelosi says she isn’t focused on 2020, though. She’s put all her energy into helping her party take back the House majority in the upcoming 2018 midterms.
“If the election were held today the Democrats would handily win the House,” Pelosi said at the CNN event.
The prediction is one Pelosi has made repeatedly over the past several months but she added the adjective “handily” on Monday.
“I can only speak in the present tense because you never know in a couple of weeks,” she qualified.
When Bash asked Pelosi if she was confident she’d be elected speaker again if Democrats do take back the majority, Pelosi provided her typical answer.
“Well it’s up to them to make that decision, but I feel pretty comfortable where I am,” she said.
Pelosi talked up her abilities as a legislator, as she often does, never shying away from self-promotion even though she claims it’s a “terrible thing.” But recently Pelosi has begun to explain the reason she feels it is important to tout her own accomplishments.
“I say this because I want women to be confident and don’t let anybody minimize what you have to offer,” she said.
Pelosi has applied that confidence not only to herself but to her caucus, as she’s campaigned around the country talking up House Democrats’ “For the People” agenda.
“This election more than anything is about healthcare,” Pelosi said Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave Democrats a gift by saying he wants to restructure Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as repeal the 2020 health care law, she said.
“I don’t know what he was thinking, but I’m glad he was maybe not thinking,” she said.