Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is seeking an eighteenth term in the House of Representatives, told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Sunday morning that she also wants to be Speaker of the House again, should Democrats retain their majority.
Pelosi made the remarks after Tapper played a short segment from the final presidential debate when President Donald Trump predicted a Republican takeover of the House.
“You keep thinking that, Mr. President. You just keep on thinking that,” said Pelosi, adding that Trump’s prediction was an example of his “delusional” statements.
“If Democrats keep the House, are you going to run for another term as speaker?” Tapper asked Pelosi, who promptly and enthusiastically replied: “Yes I am, but let me also say, we have to win the Senate.”
Should Democrats retain the House, and President Donald Trump wins re-election, Pelosi seeking the leadership position again could bring into focus her relationship with the president, with whom she hasn’t spoken in over a year.
The Washington Post reports that Trump and Pelosi’s last meeting was at the White House on October 16, 2019, when Pelosi left and claimed Trump called her a “third-grade politician.” Trump reportedly told Pelosi, “We’ll see you at the polls” after she decided to leave, and both of them later accused each other of having a “meltdown.”
Several notable roadblocks could also stand in the way of Pelosi retaining her position. On the one hand, Republicans could manage to reclaim the House majority, or Pelosi could lose the California 12th congressional seat to left-wing challenger Shahid Buttar.
Should both those scenarios fail, Pelosi would also still have to receive support from a Democratic Congress, which could include progressives hostile toward the speaker, who first took on the role in 2007 and represents a Democratic Party establishment that doesn’t always get along with the members of its uber-progressive base.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who supported Pelosi for speaker as a freshman congresswoman, said Sunday she will support the “most progressive candidate” for speaker, suggesting she wasn’t ready to commit to the San Francisco Democrat.
“I am committed to making sure that we have the most progressive candidate there. But, if Speaker Pelosi is that most progressive candidate, then I will be supporting her,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN on Sunday morning, reports Yahoo News.
When she announced her support for Pelosi in 2018, Ocasio-Cortez shared a New Yorker article which led with the claim: “The strange thing about the fight to displace Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House is that no one seems willing to run against her.”
As such, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “All the challenges to Leader Pelosi are coming from her right, in an apparent effort to make the party even more conservative and bent toward corporate interests. Hard pass. So long as Leader Pelosi remains the most progressive candidate for Speaker, she can count on my support.”
“I agree that our party should, and must, evolve our leadership. But changed leadership should reflect an actual, evolved mission; namely, an increased commitment to the middle + working class electorate that put us here,” she tweeted.
I agree that our party should, and must, evolve our leadership.
But changed leadership should reflect an actual, evolved mission; namely, an increased commitment to the middle + working class electorate that put us here.
Otherwise it’s a just new figure with the same problems.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 21, 2018