Pelosi on Serving Her Full Term: 'What Is This? ... Such a Waste of My Time' (December 15, 2022)

At what she said could be one of her last press conferences as speaker, Nancy Pelosi got a simple question. “Madam Speaker, will you commit to serving your full two‑year term for the people of San Francisco?” a reporter asked [1].

Pelosi, then 82, did not like it [4]. “What is this? What is this? Don’t bother me with a question like that. Really? Really? Okay. I said what I’m going to do. You know. Those kind of questions are such a waste of my time,” she said [1].

The video above shows the exchange from the Dec. 15, 2022, weekly press conference at the Capitol. Quotes are from the transcript published by Pelosi’s office [1].

”It Could Be”

Pelosi had opened by celebrating a new law. “Every chance I get, I want to celebrate the landmark progress we made this week when the President signed the Respect for Marriage law,” she said [1].

The term question followed one about her legacy. “You said this could be one of the last press conferences that we have with you as Speaker,” a reporter said. “It could be. And we may have one a day. We’ll see how it goes,” Pelosi answered [1].

Asked how she wanted to be remembered, she picked Obamacare. “But nothing in any of the years that I was there compares to the Affordable Care Act, expanding health care to tens of millions more Americans and 150 million families having better benefits, lower costs and no preexisting condition risking their access and no lifetime limits,” Pelosi said [1].

”Totally Non-Partisan”

Another reporter asked about the House committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021. “You helped form it,” the reporter said. “Yeah,” Pelosi replied [1].

She praised its work. “They did so in a way that I think that was done with dignity and with a factual basis and in a totally non-partisan way,” Pelosi said. “In fact, many of the witnesses who testified were Republicans who made the case about what went wrong” [1].

Pelosi had turned away two of the Republicans’ picks for that committee. On July 21, 2021, she wrote: “I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee.” She added, “The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision” [2].

”What Are They Doing?”

Pelosi also seemed caught off guard by the incoming Republican majority’s plans. A reporter asked about House Republicans “creating a new China committee in the new year.” “What are they doing?” Pelosi said [1].

“Oh, I don’t know what – when you say what do I think of these efforts, I don’t know what they are,” she said, pointing instead to an existing China commission. She also blamed business: “The fact is, is that corporate America is largely responsible for the situation we’re in in terms of the trade deficit” [1].

Less than a month later, the House voted 365-65 to create the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. Republicans voted 219-0 for it. Democrats split 146-65. Pelosi voted yes [3].

”Whose Tactic Is It?”

She also previewed the year-end spending bill. “Finally, on the subject of government funding, I am optimistic that we’ll enact a strong omnibus next week,” Pelosi said [1].

A reporter asked about the habit of passing one giant bill right before the holiday: “It’s always up against Christmas.” The reporter described it as “a tactic that you do a CR now so that you are forced to do an omnibus right before Christmas; everybody just wants to get out of the building” [1].

“Well, whose tactic is it? This is certainly something we would like to have had done before. So whose tactic is this?” Pelosi answered [1].

By the Numbers

82: Pelosi’s age when asked about serving the full term [4].
365-65: the House vote creating the China committee, with Pelosi voting yes [3].
219-0: the Republican vote for that committee [3].
65: Democrats who voted against it [3].
1987: the year Pelosi first came to Congress, Fox News noted [5].

What Happened Next

She stayed. Pelosi served out that term and won another. On Nov. 6, 2025, she announced she “will not be seeking re-election after completing her current term,” Fox News reported [5].

“That is why I want you, my fellow San Franciscans to be the first to know I will not be seeking re-election to Congress,” Pelosi said in a video [5].

President Donald Trump cheered. “The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America,” he told Fox News. “I’m very honored she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice” [5].

Her committee got pardons. On his way out, President Joe Biden pardoned the panel she praised. “That is why I am exercising my authority under the Constitution to pardon General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Members of Congress and staff who served on the select committee,” Biden said on Jan. 20, 2025 [6].

For how Pelosi’s own words ended up in a Supreme Court ruling, see HYGO News’ page on the student loan decision, and for the omnibus she pushed through that same month, the page on Rand Paul and the 4,155-page bill.