House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been serving in the House of Representatives since 1987 — an astonishing 34-year tenure in the nation’s Capitol.
On Thursday, when discussing President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan that is struggling to advance in a Democrat-controlled Congress, Pelosi dropped a strange hint about retirement.
And a savvy reporter noticed.
Pelosi said the reconciliation bill “was a culmination of my service in Congress because it was about the children. The children, the children, the children.”
There is no doubt that “we will have a reconciliation bill,” she promised.
“Their health. It’s about health. Education. The economic security of their families,” she said. “A clean, safe environment in which they could thrive and a world at peace in which they could succeed.”
“This is more about the domestic first four parts of that. So removal of doubt in anyone’s mind that we will not have a reconciliation,” Pelosi said. “We will have a reconciliation bill.”
“You said this is the culmination of your time in Congress?” one clever reporter asked. “Are you trying to… culmination means the end of an experience.”
But it doesn’t seem the 87-year-old House speaker is ready to head home quite yet.
“Get out of here!” Pelosi responded. “Get out of here.”
“You said it, not me,” the reporter pointed out.
“Yeah… no… but of course, the Affordable Care Act was remarkable and I take some proprietary interest on this,” Pelosi said.
“In terms of finally seeing a time where we can think in a large way about our children, our people with disabilities. Our moms,” she continued, saying she was often so busy being a mom she couldn’t find time to bathe herself.
“I mean, I’m a mom with five children. When I was young and was raising my children, people don’t know, this is a challenging job. Even one child or two. I didn’t even wash my face some days,” she said. “In fact, I liked it that way, but the fact is, is that we have to… if we’re going to be really building back better, we have to give women the opportunity to work in the workplace, and that’s about childcare, home healthcare, universal pre-K, and family medical leave.”
Pelosi had previously told reporters that this term as House speaker would be her last — but has repeatedly dodged questions about retiring.
In June, when asked about retirement she quipped, “Retirement? What’s that?”
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