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 advised 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 occasion’s Home management in November 2022, announced in November that she wouldn’t run for reelection in 2026. With about yr 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 provided 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 primarily 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 shall 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 relies on the president’s actions.
“I’ve mentioned to individuals, the one one that was chargeable for the impeachments of Donald Trump is Donald Trump. It isn’t one thing you determine to do – it is what violation of the Structure he engages in,” she advised Karl. “In order that’s not one thing you say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna impeach him.’ However you’ll be able to have the ability of subpoena to get data from these companies of presidency who are usually not supplying any data now.”
When she first ran for Congress in 1987, Pelosi’s marketing campaign slogan was “Nancy Pelosi: A voice that shall be heard.”
“It is humorous, is not it? Is not it humorous that I’d turn out to be speaker of the Home and, after all, my voice could be heard, however I by no means considered that,” she mirrored.
One among 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 bought to – I liked my committees, appropriations, intelligence,” Pelosi advised 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] occasion 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 Reasonably priced Care Act, for which Pelosi mentioned she hopes she’ll be remembered.
Members of the Home of Representatives take pictures with their telephones as President Barack Obama indicators the Reasonably priced 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 Reasonably priced Care Act. I feel that it was – it simply made a giant change when it comes to what working households want for his or her well being and their monetary well being. We’ll proceed to have that combat,” she mentioned. “The well being care invoice was a method of not solely assembly well being wants, however monetary wants of households. So if I had been to be remembered for one factor, it could be the Reasonably priced Care Act.”
However her contentious relationship with Trump shall be a defining a part of her legacy, too. That features the viral footage of her tearing up his closing State of the Union handle 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 handle earlier than members of Congress within the Home chamber of the U.S. Capitol Feb. 4, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
The Washington Publish through 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 following web page, after which the following web page. And I believed 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 believed my employees was going to die.”
Pelosi mentioned that the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters searching for 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 via your head? I imply, we see the images, we see the anguish, we see what’s occurring to the Capitol – what is going on via 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
“Effectively, it was clear that the president of the USA had incited an revolt. And we begged him to ship the Nationwide Guard,” Pelosi mentioned. “Even Mitch McConnell was on the cellphone with us saying, get them right here straight away. 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 distinct 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 accountability underneath the Structure to certify the Electoral School, who was elected president, as an assault on the Structure of the USA,” 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 USA now. However historical past will, he’ll pay a worth in historical past.”
After Trump received the presidential election in 2024, the 2 federal instances in opposition to Trump, together with the costs 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 costs due to the Justice Division’s presidential immunity coverage. Trump pleaded not responsible to all federal costs levied in opposition to him.
With a yr left in Congress, Pelosi mentioned her precedence is returning the gavel to Home Democrats.
“I am busy, and centered on profitable 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 enormous, the American individuals are good individuals. And I want 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 profitable the Home for the Democrats is that we attempt to take the dialogue to a spot that believes within the goodness of the American individuals, that offers them hope.”
