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Pelosi Appears Irritated After CBS Plays Montage of Democrats Calling for Her Ouster: 'They Had Their Time on TV'

June 26, 2017

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) did not appear pleased Monday that "CBS This Morning" greeted her with a montage of Democrats calling for her to step aside from her position as House minority leader, saying, "I'm here ... they had their time on TV."

CBS played a series of clips of Democrats like Reps. Kathleen Rice (D., N.Y.), Tim Ryan (D., Ohio), Seth Moulton (D., Mass.), and Filemon Vela (D., Texas) calling for her to step aside as minority leader in the wake of four special House election losses in 2017.

Pelosi smiled as host Charlie Rose asked for her response.

"I'm here, and we're hearing all these other people. They had their time on TV," she said. "This is such a small item. It isn't about me. Right now, our fight is about the Affordable Care Act. I've always had a challenge in the caucus, right from the start."

Rose cut over her, however, to point out the Democrats' 0-for-4 showing in 2017, including the loss by Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia last week despite $30 million in spending there.

Pelosi said she also likes to win, but she repeated the Democratic line that they cut into big margins in those races, which already tilted Republican. As for the members calling for her to step aside, she said it was nothing new.

"These people were against me last November," she said. "They started this before. The fact is this. I led [in 2006] to take us to a majority, became speaker of the House. President Obama became president. He was our spokesperson for eight years. We just lost the election. We could write a message, but the fact is, we need our members to write the message."

Asked by host Gayle King why she should not step aside, Pelosi repeated her memorable phrase from last week that she was a "master legislator." As she has stated before, Pelosi said she may have retired if Hillary Clinton had been elected president.