Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says she is focused on winning the election in 2024 amid legal challenges to former President Donald Trump's eligibility to run for a second term.
Pelosi was asked about the idea being floated by some that Trump is ineligible to run for president under section three of the 14th Amendment, alleging he incited an "insurrection” with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The California Democrat said she will leave that determination up to the courts. Her comments came while speaking on MSNBC's Dateline: White House.
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"It's interesting the direction it’s coming from not from the left, but from serious on the right constitutional scholars, and that’s something that I get asked about all the time and I’ll just leave it up to the constitutional scholars to describe that. But I think at the same time we have to understand that he’s not the only one, that if you see the actions of the Republicans in Congress, you know that we have to win the election," Pelosi said.
"So the courts will do what they do, the scholars will do what they do, but we have to win the election. Otherwise, you see us on the brink of a possible shutdown, which impedes our ability to meet the needs of the American people to fight fentanyl, to fight all kinds of things that are challenging out there including our national security," she added.
The California Democrat doubled down that the courts will decide if Trump will be eligible but stressed why she believes it is important Joe Biden wins a second term as president.
"Nonetheless, winning the election is central for us, because 'what’s his name' is one person and others will decide whether he can run or he can’t run. The courts will decide further what his exposure and vulnerability is. I don’t go anywhere near that, I did what I did in terms of two impeachments in the Congress, seeing his behavior," Pelosi said.
"He is not above the law, neither are any of these other people above the law, and we just have to make the fight. And do it with clarity and unity and how we go forward has to be in a way that unifies America, that just doesn’t further divide and nobody is better at that than Joe Biden," she added.
A liberal watchdog filed a lawsuit in Colorado earlier this week seeking to have former President Donald Trump disqualified from the 2024 presidential ballot in the state under the 14th Amendment, and the group said more lawsuits in different states were imminent.
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The California Democrat announced on Friday that she will be seeking an additional term in her congressional seat representing San Francisco in 2024. She was first elected to the seat in 1987.
Pelosi stepped down from House Democratic leadership last year but has remained in Congress representing her home district. She previously served as House Speaker from 2007 until 2011 and again from 2019 until 2023 — the first woman to do so.