Nancy Pelosi has spent nearly four decades inside Congress, and she’s not sentimental about how power works.
In a wide-ranging interview on ABC’s This Week aired Sunday, the former House speaker spoke less like a retiree offering reflections and more like a strategist explaining how institutions break — and how they can be taken back.
Pelosi said she has no doubt Democrats will regain control of the House after the 2026 midterms and that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will take the speaker’s gavel. Asked by ABC’s Jonathan Karl whether she could imagine any other outcome, Pelosi answered simply: “None,” according to ABC News.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi told ABC News’ Jon Karl she is confident that Democrats will retake the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms and that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will hold the speaker’s gavel. https://t.co/H9yB6ZzMTf
— ABC News (@ABC) December 28, 2025
But her argument wasn’t just about electoral math. It was about what she sees as a hollowed-out Congress under the Trump administration.
“Right now, the Republicans in the Congress have abolished the Congress,” Pelosi said, according to ABC’s interview transcript. “They just do what the president insists that they do. That will be over. That ends as soon as we have the gavel.”
Pelosi framed the speaker’s role not as a partisan trophy, but as a constitutional counterweight — controlling the purse strings, demanding information from federal agencies, and restoring oversight that she says has effectively vanished under Republican leadership.
As she prepares to retire from Congress after nearly four-decades in Washington, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi sits down with @jonkarl to reflect on her groundbreaking career. pic.twitter.com/izDdRwPwJH
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) December 28, 2025
According to The Washington Times, Pelosi said a Jeffries-led House would immediately reclaim Congress’ authority, even if legislative wins remain difficult under President Donald Trump. “It is hard to get something that he will sign because of the problem that he is,” she said, adding that Democrats could still block, delay, and investigate.
On impeachment, Pelosi was careful not to promise anything. She told ABC News that impeachment isn’t a political decision but a constitutional response. “The one person who was responsible for the impeachments of Donald Trump is Donald Trump,” she said. “It’s not something you decide to do.”
Much of the interview carried the tone of a leader who believes time has validated her instincts, particularly when it comes to Trump. Pelosi revisited the now-iconic moment when she tore up Trump’s State of the Union speech, saying it wasn’t planned. “I thought it was a manifesto of lies all throughout,” she said. “So I better just tear up the whole speech.”
Thank you Nancy Pelosi for 39 Years of service to this nation.
And My favorite part… pic.twitter.com/zwiXDw5JiM
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) November 6, 2025
She also spoke at length about January 6, calling it “absolutely” the darkest day of her speakership. Her daughter, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, was with her inside the Capitol that day, capturing footage later used in the HBO documentary Pelosi in the House. Pelosi said what still haunts her most isn’t the broken windows, but the fear she saw in the eyes of congressional staff.
“What happened that day was horrible,” she said. “It was an assault on the Capitol, the Congress, and the Constitution.”
Pelosi, now 85, has announced she will not seek reelection. Yet she resisted the idea that she’s finished shaping the party. “I’m busy, and focused on winning the House for the Democrats,” she said on This Week, “Making Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker.”
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi votes for Rep. Jeffries for Speaker. pic.twitter.com/PyT9d4W0qw
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 3, 2025
Still, she has also acknowledged limits, especially when it comes to gender and power. In a separate interview earlier this month, reported by The Guardian, Pelosi said she no longer expects to see a woman elected president in her lifetime, describing the barrier as “not a glass ceiling” but “a marble ceiling.”
That realism runs through her latest remarks. Pelosi doesn’t sound nostalgic, or bitter, or hopeful in a sweeping way. She sounds focused on leverage: on where authority lives, how it erodes, and how quickly it can be reclaimed.
And even as she prepares to step away, Pelosi made one thing clear: power, in her view, is never inherited quietly. It’s taken — gavel in hand.
