Nancy Pelosi plans to stay in Congress; speakership remains in question
Updated 3:51 pm, Friday, April 5, 2019
Photo: J. Patocka/Invision/AP
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Rep. Nancy Pelosi appears on MSNBC to announce she will serve for another term.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi appears on MSNBC to announce she will serve for another term.
Photo: J. Patocka, Pool, File
Nancy Pelosi plans to stay in Congress; speakership remains in question
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Leader Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats have decided not to take a break from Congress. There will be no impeachment hearings and no attempt to impeach President Donald Trump.
But the leader decided she’ll stay on with a possible successor to keep working to change Washington and the Democratic-run House. It’s a decision facing no opposition from the president or the Republican-led Senate.
Pelosi, the House minority leader, had been expected to announce her retirement to leave the powerful, ceremonial post she’s held for a century and change a Democratic party power structure that once looked like the next generation of political royalty. But the 80-year-old Democrat, who is now the longest serving woman in the history of the House, decided to stay in Congress. The White House has said the decision is the president’s alone.
But a growing controversy surrounding the president and his relationship with the women who have said he touched them in lewd ways over decades has triggered a new era in the Democratic leadership fight. The decision is going to be watched closely and potentially shift House control to the Democrats.
“I am glad that, after much prayer and reflection, I have made a decision to remain on as minority leader and continue to lead our party and our Caucus,” Pelosi wrote on her Facebook page, announcing her decision Friday.
She added: “There will be a new Democratic House of Representatives… and a new party president after this election. God bless America.”
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Pelosi’s retirement had been expected in the coming weeks, with some sources predicting she would step down after her term was up in 2022, and