Nancy Pelosi on the Presidency: ‘People Ask Me All the Time, Why Haven’t You Run?’

During a Monday citizens’ forum hosted by CNN, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said people ask her “all the time” why she hasn’t made a run for the position of commander-in-chief.

Apparently referring to her long political career juxtaposed against Donald Trump’s ascent to the Oval Office, the progressive legislator told interviewer Dana Bash, “I’m just saying, I said [in the past], ‘If Hillary had won, I could go home,'” as Breitbart noted.

Pelosi explained her choice of the legislative branch as a career, explaining, in a rather garbled way, “I think that I have a special understanding — institutional memory — knowledge of the … substance knowledge of the legislative process that holds me in good stead, for now.”

The California liberal then said, “We’ll see what happens in the presidential [race] — coming up, four weeks [until the focus turns to the 2020 White House race], gonna be the presidential, that’s what’s gonna happen — very soon. We’ll go from the House races, the Senate races, the governors and the state legislative races.”

Bash queried, “That’s one thing you’re not gonna run for, right?”

“What?” Pelosi answered.

“President?” Bash said, smiling.

Pelosi grinned. “People ask me all the time, ‘Why haven’t you run for president?’ I love the legislative process, I really do. No, I’m not gonna run for president.”

She explained, “I’m trying to promote [Gov.] Jerry Brown to do it, but he’s not taking the bait, not that he would run … He would run just to put the ideas out there, and that’s why people run, too.”

Another progressive elite has made headlines for talking about the presidency. Hillary Clinton — though she failed to gain the White House in 2016 and lost the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency to Barack Obama in 2008 — has been the subject of some initial speculation regarding a possible third presidential campaign.

One of Clinton’s closest longtime political aides dropped hints recently that the 2016 Democratic nominee may be spoiling for a rematch with Donald Trump.

Related: Dem Strategist Doubts Third Clinton White House Run, Touts Booker

“It’s curious why Hillary Clinton’s name isn’t in the mix — either conversationally or in formal polling — as a 2020 candidate. She’s younger than Donald Trump by a year. She’s younger than Joe Biden by four years,” said Philippe Reines, according to The Daily Wire.

“Is it that she’s run before?” he ruminated. “This would be Bernie Sanders’ second time, and Biden’s third time. Is it lack of support? She had 65 million people vote for her. There’s no one in the Democratic Party who has anywhere near a base of 32 million people. That’s multiples of what a Sanders or a Warren have,” he continued.

Reines added, “Chalking the loss up to her being a failed candidate is an oversimplification. She is smarter than most, tougher than most, she could raise money easier than most, and it was an absolute fight to the death.”

See Pelosi’s comments in the video below.