OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is waiting to see if Democrats maintain the majority in the House, which is still possible, though not probable, before he decides on her own future.
The 82-year-old California representative spoke to Dana Bash on the CNN show ‘State of the Union” on Sunday to talk about the midterm elections, her career and the attack on her husband Paul Pelosi.
“My decision will again be rooted in what the wishes of my family and the wishes of my caucus, but none of it will be very much considered until we see what the outcome of all of this is,” the Speaker said.
“There are all kinds of ways to exert influence,” she said. “The Speaker has awesome power. But I will always have influence.”
Her answer was similar when she spoke to anchor George Stephanopoulos when she appeared on the ABC Sunday show “This Week.”
“Right now I’m not making any comments until this election is finished, and we have a little more time to go,” she said. “I wish it was faster.”
She would not say if she thought Democrats would keep the House when she spoke on CNN.
“What we want to do is go forward in a very unified way as we go forward to prepare for the Congress at hand,” she said. “And then after some respite, get ready for the next election.”
“My purpose in all of this is to first and foremost protect our incumbents,” the Speaker said. “And that is what we have done in California and where we have seen opportunity to grow our majority. That has been our priority both in California and elsewhere. We’re disappointed as to what happened in New York, because that is a setback in terms of our calculations before, but we’ll see, there’s so many boats still out.”
She was also furious with Republicans who she believed were not respectful after her husband was attacked.
“We’ve been so comforted by the outpouring of so many prayers and good wishes, and even people saying, ‘I wasn’t going to vote, but now I’m going to vote, because this has gone too far,’” she said to Stephanopoulos.
“There’s nobody that’s disassociating themselves from the horrible response that they gave,” she said to Bash, saying that the responses have been “ridiculous, disrespectful” and “disgraceful.”
On the eve of Election Day, when the Democrats were predicted to be defeated by Republicans in the House, the Speaker said the attack on her husband Paul Pelosi would affect her decision to retire, CNN reported.
In an exclusive interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper the host said that there has “been a lot of discussion about whether you’d retire if Democrats lose the House.”
The speaker responded by saying that the “decision will be affected about what happened the last week or two,” which got Cooper to ask, “Will your decision be impacted by the attack in any way?”
“Yes,” the Speaker said.
“It will?” the anchor asked.
“Yes,” she said.
It is likely that she will not be Speaker in 2023 as Republicans are predicted to win back the majority in the House and many speculated that she would retire if that were the case.
But now with the attack on her husband that appears to be the reasoning for her decision, if she does retire.
Describing when she was informed of the attack she said that the doorbell rang and then she heard “bang, bang, bang, bang, bang on the door.”
“So I run to the door, and I’m very scared,” she said. “I see the Capitol Police and they say, ‘We have to come in to talk to you.’”
Her immediate thoughts were of her children and her grandchildren.
“And I’m thinking my children, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul because, you know, I knew he wouldn’t be out and about, shall we say. And so they came in. At that time, we didn’t even know where he was,” she said.
The Speaker broke her silence since this weekend after the vicious attack on her husband Paul Pelosi.
The 82-year-old hammer attack victim has returned home and the Speaker thanked everyone for their concern.
“With a grateful heart I thank all who sent kind words and prayers for Paul. It’s a long road but he will be well. Our security, our Democracy, our planet, our values are on the ballot. Believe that we will win — and help Get Out The Vote to make it so,” she said with an attached video.
Her husband was bludgeoned to near death and she is still using the opportunity to tell people to vote.
“Paul came home yesterday. That enables me to be at home with all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your kind words, and your good wishes for Paul,” she said on a video call.
“It’s going to be a long haul, but he will be well. And, it’s just so tragic how it happened, but nonetheless, we have to be optimistic. He’s surrounded by family, so that’s a wonderful thing,” she said.
