Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may have retired as House Democrat leader, but she was still occupying the leader’s office… until Tuesday.
Pelosi was given 24 hours’ notice to leave her prime real estate in the Capitol Building, her office told Politico Tuesday.
“Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed,” an aide to the House Administration Committee told Pelosi in an email shared with Politico Tuesday.
One insider told The New York Times that outgoing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to move into this space next week.
According to Politico‘s review of the email, the space was “for speaker office use” and was being reassigned by Acting Speaker of the House Patrick McHenry.
However, the Times source said that Pelosi was evicted not by McHenry, but by McCarthy himself.
According to this account, McCarthy used his last moments as House speaker to evict Pelosi.
Pelosi had been working from a “hideaway,” a kind of office conveniently located in the Capitol building and usually reserved for the House’s senior leadership. Other representatives tend to work offsite, at the Cannon House Office Building south of the Capitol or the Longworth House Office Building Nearby.
The California Democrat first became a party leader in 2003. She retired from these roles earlier this year, and she’s now serving as a rank-and-file congressmember.
However, the two-time House speaker has claimed the title “speaker emerita,” and she continued to work from this prized office.
New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Pelosi’s successor as House Democrat leader, assisted the 83-year-old congressmember in packing her boxes, her office told Politico.
Pelosi didn’t show up. She was reportedly away from Washington, D.C., to attend a memorial service for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a fellow San Francisco Democrat.
“Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time,” Pelosi told Politico in a statement.
Pelosi went on to complain that the eviction as “a sharp departure from tradition” and said she gave former Speaker Dennis Hastert “a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished” after Hastert’s 2007 departure as House speaker.
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, Pelosi’s longtime deputy, told Politico the next day that he had also been asked to leave his office.
Pelosi’s other longtime deputy, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, told Politico that he didn’t have an office in the Capitol during this term.
Take a look at staff packing Pelosi’s boxes for her —
UPDATE: Picture Tonight Outside of former Speaker Pelosi's Office.. Her staff is actually moving her out of the Speakers Office she refused to vacate as Demanded by the Temporary Speaker..
I can't stop laughing.. #NoSquatters https://t.co/5iXFxaWjX5 pic.twitter.com/ODIF4R9r7Y
— Matt Couch (@RealMattCouch) October 4, 2023
The Horn editorial team