House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) suggested to the Los Angeles Times Friday that while she intends to be Speaker of the House if Democrats win the midterm elections, she might considering limiting her time in office.
The Times reported:
Democrats have yet to win a House majority and Nancy Pelosi’s return as speaker is by no means certain, but already she has one eye on the exits.
“I see myself as a transitional figure,” Pelosi said in an interview in which she professed utmost confidence that, should Democrats take control of the chamber on Nov. 6, she will again assume the top leadership position. “I have things to do. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love.”
She hastened to add she was not imposing a limit on her tenure. “Do you think I would make myself a lame duck right here over this double-espresso?” the San Francisco Democrat said Thursday in a downtown Miami cafe, with a raised eyebrow and a laugh.
By implicitly limiting her time as speaker, Pelosi could ease the pressure to stand aside by signaling her willingness for a new and younger generation of leaders to take over sooner rather than later.
Earlier this year, Pelosi said she intended to be the Democrats’ leader in the House of Representatives for as long as President Donald Trump was in office.
Several dozen Democratic incumbents and candidates pledged earlier this year not to vote for Pelosi, but talk about a revolt has died down in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, Pelosi confidently predicted victory. The only question, she told an audience at Harvard University, is whether the Democrats’ win would be a “wave” or a “tsunami.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.