Pelosi on Famous Moment: I Didn't Plan to Tear Up Speech

Former speaker also predicts Democrats will take back the House next year
Posted Dec 29, 2025 7:51 AM CST
Pelosi Predicts Democrats Will Take Back the House
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Nancy Pelosi predicts things are going to change in a big way next year in Congress: The former speaker told ABC's This Week on Sunday that she is certain Democrats will regain control of the House. And that shift, she added, will bring another:

  • "Right now, Republicans in the Congress have abolished the Congress," said Pelosi. "They just do what the president insists that they do. That will be over. That ends as soon as we have the gavel."

Should Democrats regain control, it won't be Pelosi wielding that gavel. She relinquished her party leadership post in 2022 and will retire from Congress when her current term ends in 2026, per the Guardian. "Hakeem Jeffries is ready," she said of her successor as party leader in the House. "He's eloquent, he's respected by the members, he is a unifier." In the interview, Pelosi looked back over her long career, the last part of which has been punctuated by her opposition to President Trump. She spoke of a viral moment in 2020 when she tore up her copy of his State of the Union Address when he finished speaking.

"I didn't intend to go to the speech to tear it up. But I just—the first part of it, I tore a page because it was lying. And then the next page, and then the next page. And I thought it was a manifesto of lies all throughout, so I better just tear up the whole speech," Pelosi said. "But I had no intention of doing it. I thought my staff was going to die."

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