House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday briefly lost her patience with a reporter who pressed her on whether she’d represent her San Francisco district for the entirety of the 118th Congress, despite not being among the House Democratic leadership for the first time in two decades.
Ms Pelosi was speaking at a press conference on Thursday when a reporter asked her if she’d “commit to serving your full two-year term for the people of San Francisco”.
The speaker, who has represented her San Francisco constituency since 1987, snapped: “What is this? Don’t bother me with a question like that!”
“Those kind of questions are such a waste of my time,” she added.
Despite Ms Pelosi’s dismissal of the query, there is precedent for a former House speaker to resign after their party loses control of the House.
In November 2007, former GOP Speaker Denis Hastert submitted his resignation from Congress, one year after Democrats – led by Ms Pelosi – ended 12 years of Republican control amid discontent with the US war in Iraq.
Mr Hastert, an Illinois congressman who would later be convicted of violating US laws against structuring bank transactions to avoid reporting withdrawals he used to pay hush money to a former student he’d molested while serving as a high school wrestling coach, was elected to a full term even as his party lost the majority, but stood down after a year, citing health reasons.
