Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is assured that Democrats will re-take the Home of Representatives within the 2026 midterms and that Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries will maintain the speaker’s gavel.
“Hakeem Jeffries is prepared, he is eloquent, he is revered by the members, he’s a unifier,” Pelosi instructed ABC Information’ Jonathan Karl throughout a brand new interview that aired Sunday on “This Week.”
“You haven’t any doubt it will be Hakeem Jeffries?” Karl requested.
“None,” Pelosi mentioned.
The California Democrat, who stepped down from the get together’s Home management in November 2022, announced in November that she wouldn’t run for reelection in 2026. With about 12 months left in her time period, the longtime Democratic chief and first feminine speaker of the Home spoke to Karl in Washington about her profession, her relationship with President Donald Trump, and supplied recommendation for Democrats going ahead.
Jonathan Karl sits down with Nancy Pelosi in Washington D.C., on Dec. 18, 2025, for an interview on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” airing Dec. 21, 2025.
Al Drago/ABC
Pelosi mentioned that “when” Democrats win again the Home, they should reclaim Congress’ powers, which she argues the present Republican-led Congress has basically handed over to Trump.
“Proper now, the Republicans within the Congress have abolished the Congress. They only do what the president insists that they do. That can be over,” Pelosi mentioned. “That ends as quickly as we now have the gavel.”
However on the query of whether or not to pursue a 3rd impeachment of Trump, Pelosi mentioned it is determined by the president’s actions.
“I’ve mentioned to folks, the one one who was chargeable for the impeachments of Donald Trump is Donald Trump. It isn’t one thing you resolve to do – it is what violation of the Structure he engages in,” she instructed Karl. “In order that’s not one thing you say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna impeach him.’ However you may have the facility of subpoena to get info from these companies of presidency who usually are not supplying any info now.”
When she first ran for Congress in 1987, Pelosi’s marketing campaign slogan was “Nancy Pelosi: A voice that can be heard.”
“It is humorous, is not it? Is not it humorous that I might turn out to be speaker of the Home and, in fact, my voice can be heard, however I by no means considered that,” she mirrored.
Certainly one of solely 23 girls within the Home when she received, Pelosi went on to make historical past as the primary girl chosen to be a celebration’s whip, the primary girl to be minority chief and, in 2007, the primary girl to be speaker of the Home, making her third in line to the presidency.
“I really by no means meant to run for management. That is what’s so humorous about this as a result of I acquired to – I cherished my committees, appropriations, intelligence,” Pelosi instructed ABC Information. “However we misplaced in ’94, ’96, ’98, after which it is coming as much as 2000. I mentioned, you realize, being a [former] get together chair, I understand how to win elections. And I am simply bored with shedding.”
As speaker, Pelosi helped shepherd historic laws underneath President Barack Obama, together with the Inexpensive Care Act, for which Pelosi mentioned she hopes she’ll be remembered.
Members of the Home of Representatives take images with their telephones as President Barack Obama indicators the Inexpensive Well being Take care of America Act throughout a ceremony with fellow Democrats within the East Room of the White Home March 23, 2010 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos
“I’m very happy with the Inexpensive Care Act. I feel that it was – it simply made an enormous change by way of what working households want for his or her well being and their monetary well being. We’ll proceed to have that struggle,” she mentioned. “The well being care invoice was a approach of not solely assembly well being wants, however monetary wants of households. So if I had been to be remembered for one factor, it might be the Inexpensive Care Act.”
However her contentious relationship with Trump can be a defining a part of her legacy, too. That features the viral footage of her tearing up his closing State of the Union tackle throughout his first time period – one thing Pelosi mentioned she hadn’t deliberate.
Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi tears up her superior copy of President Donald J. Trump’s State of the Union tackle earlier than members of Congress within the Home chamber of the U.S. Capitol Feb. 4, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
The Washington Submit by way of Getty Im
“I did not intend to go to the speech to tear it up. However I simply – the primary a part of it, I tore a web page as a result of it was mendacity. After which the subsequent web page, after which the subsequent web page. And I assumed it was a manifesto of lies all all through, so I higher simply tear up the entire speech,” Pelosi mentioned. “However I had no intention of doing it. I assumed my workers was going to die.”
Pelosi mentioned that the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters in search of to dam formal certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory was “completely” the darkest day of her speakership.
Her daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, was with Pelosi on Capitol Hill that day, filming her as she was evacuated to a safe facility the place she and the remainder of congressional management then spent hours attempting to return to the Capitol to complete the proceedings. The harrowing footage was featured within the 2022 HBO documentary, “Pelosi within the Home.”
“What is going on by your head? I imply, we see the photographs, we see the anguish, we see what’s occurring to the Capitol – what is going on by your head?” Karl requested Pelosi.
ABC Information’ Jonathan Karl sits down with Nancy Pelosi in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025 for an interview on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” airing Sunday, Dec. 27, 2025.
Al Drago/ABC
“Nicely, it was clear that the president of the US had incited an riot. And we begged him to ship the Nationwide Guard,” Pelosi mentioned. “Even Mitch McConnell was on the telephone with us saying, get them right here immediately. However they by no means despatched them.”
“The sorrow of it additionally springs from the truth that this president is attempting to rewrite historical past, have a unique narrative of what occurred that day,” Pelosi added.
“What occurred that day was horrible. It was an assault on the Capitol, the image of democracy to the world. It was an assault on the Congress, the day we honored our duty underneath the Structure to certify the Electoral School, who was elected president, as an assault on the Structure of the US,” she mentioned. “It was horrible.”
Within the HBO documentary, Pelosi says Trump should “pay a worth” for the Capitol assault.
“Has he paid a worth for it?” Karl requested.
“No, he is president of the US now. However historical past will, he’ll pay a worth in historical past.”
After Trump received the presidential election in 2024, the 2 federal circumstances in opposition to Trump, together with the fees associated to his actions main as much as and on the day of the Capitol assault, had been dismissed. Jack Smith, the particular counsel appointed to research Trump, filed a movement to dismiss the fees due to the Justice Division’s presidential immunity coverage. Trump pleaded not responsible to all federal fees levied in opposition to him.
With a 12 months left in Congress, Pelosi mentioned her precedence is returning the gavel to Home Democrats.
“I am busy, and centered on successful the Home for the Democrats, making Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker of the Home, and to take us to a greater place,” she mentioned.
“By and huge, the American persons are good folks. And I wish to see us take us again to a spot the place governance and politics perceive that,” she added. “So what’s subsequent for me is no matter I do along with successful the Home for the Democrats is that we attempt to take the dialogue to a spot that believes within the goodness of the American folks, that offers them hope.”
