Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already looking past the current Congress and toward the 2026 midterm elections, saying she is confident Democrats will reclaim the House — and that Hakeem Jeffries will take the speaker’s gavel.
“Hakeem Jeffries is ready, he’s eloquent, he’s respected by the members, he is a unifier,” Pelosi said in an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that aired Sunday on This Week.
When Karl asked whether she had any doubt Jeffries would become speaker if Democrats win, Pelosi’s answer was blunt. “None,” she said.
Pelosi, a California Democrat, stepped down from House leadership in 2022 and announced last year that she will not seek reelection in 2026. With roughly a year left in her final term, she reflected on her career, her battles with President Donald Trump, and what she sees as the central task for Democrats moving forward.
According to Pelosi, reclaiming the House is about more than partisan control. She argued that the current Republican-led Congress has surrendered its authority to the White House.
“Right now, the Republicans in the Congress have abolished the Congress,” Pelosi said. “They just do what the president insists that they do. That will be over. That ends as soon as we have the gavel.”
Asked whether Democrats would pursue a third impeachment of Trump if they regain power, Pelosi said such decisions depend entirely on presidential conduct. “The one person who was responsible for the impeachments of Donald Trump is Donald Trump,” she said, arguing that impeachment is a response to constitutional violations, not a political strategy. She added that a Democratic House would at minimum restore subpoena power to investigate agencies she claims are withholding information.
Pelosi also reflected on her unlikely rise to power. When she first ran for Congress in 1987, her campaign slogan was “Nancy Pelosi: A voice that will be heard.”
“It’s funny, isn’t it?” she said. “I never thought of becoming speaker.” At the time, she was one of just 23 women in the House. She went on to become the first woman to serve as party whip, minority leader, and speaker — third in line to the presidency.
She said her decision to pursue leadership came after years of Democratic losses. “I said, I know how to win elections,” Pelosi recalled. “And I’m just tired of losing.”
As speaker, Pelosi helped pass major legislation under President Barack Obama, most notably the Affordable Care Act, which she said she hopes defines her legacy. “It made a big change in terms of what working families need for their health and their financial health,” she said.
Her clashes with Trump, however, remain among her most visible moments. Pelosi revisited the viral image of her tearing up Trump’s State of the Union address during his first term, saying it was not premeditated. “It was a manifesto of lies,” she said. “So I better just tear up the whole speech.”
Pelosi described the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as the darkest day of her speakership. She said it was clear to her that Trump had incited the violence and recalled pleading for the National Guard to be deployed.
“What happened that day was horrible,” Pelosi said. “It was an assault on the Capitol, the Congress, and the Constitution of the United States.”
Although Trump now occupies the presidency again and the federal cases against him were dismissed after his 2024 election win, Pelosi said accountability will come in another form. “He hasn’t paid a price yet,” she said. “But history will.”
With her time in Congress winding down, Pelosi said her focus is singular. “I’m busy and focused on winning the House for the Democrats, making Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker of the House, and taking us to a better place,” she said.
She added that beyond elections and power, she hopes to steer political discourse toward something more hopeful. “By and large, the American people are good people,” Pelosi said. “And I would like to see us take us back to a place that believes in that.”
