A visibly irritated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) snapped at a reporter during her regular Thursday press conference, apparently set off by a question about whether or not she plans to finish her term in the House of Representatives after she hands over the gavel in January.
Pelosi’s demeanor had been much more affable earlier in the press conference, as Mediaite reported, even when questions veered toward the end of her tenure as House Speaker. The California Congresswoman even lightly ribbed a reporter who suggested that, because of the approaching Christmas holiday, Thursday’s press briefing might be her last as a Democratic Party leader.
“Could be, and we may have one a day,” Pelosi joked.
The outgoing Speaker talked at length about her legacy as a leader within her party, saying that even after decades of service, nothing she had ever accomplished could hold a candle to the passage of 2010’s Affordable Care Act, which was championed and signed into law by then-President Barack Obama.
“Nothing in any of the years that I was there compares to the Affordable Care Act, expanding health care to tens of millions more Americans, 150 million families having better benefits, lower cost and no preexisting condition, risking their access and no lifetime limits. Being a woman no longer a preexisting condition,” Pelosi stated.
But Pelosi’s attitude quickly soured when a reporter asked whether she would finish out her final term once the gavel had been relinquished.
WATCH:
"Will you commit to serving your full two-year term for the people of San Francisco?"
NANCY PELOSI: "What is this? What is this? Don't bother me with a question like that. Really. Really, ok? I said what I'm gonna do. Those kind of questions are such a waste of my time." pic.twitter.com/cINT3MWdQD
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 15, 2022
“Will you commit to serving your full two-year term for the people of San Francisco?” the reporter asked.
“What is this? What is this? Don’t bother me with a question like that,” Pelosi snapped. “Really. Really, ok? I said what I’m gonna do. Those kind of questions are such a waste of my time.”
In addition to turning her gavel over to an as-yet-unnamed new House Speaker in January, Pelosi announced shortly after the midterm election that she did not intend to seek a leadership role in the next Congress. Shortly thereafter, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was elected to serve as the Democratic leader in the House.