House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called Congress a mockery in an interview with Charlie Rose Monday. Pelosi also claimed Congress held 40 percent approval during her tenure as Speaker of the House.
ROSE: When Americans in overwhelming numbers show that they don’t approve of the Congress, why do you think that is?
PELOSI: Well, they don’t see…I don’t approve of the Congress. So count me among them.
ROSE: All right.
PELOSI: The fact is that we’ve had a period of time where there’s been just obstruction to anything that the president wants to do. The public isn’t aware of process—
ROSE: But the first two years of this presidency he had an overwhelming majority in the House and the Senate. Until the Brown election and—
PELOSI: And we had 40 percent approval for the Congress. It’s about 25 percent now. I didn’t think 40 percent was good enough, but nonetheless it’s much lower now. Congress is always…let’s put this in perspective: Congress has always been a mockery since the beginning of our country and if you looked at the history of it, they’ve always been fighting over one thing or another.
According to Gallup, Congressional approval ranged from 13 to 39 percent and never reached 40 percent or higher during Pelosi's tenure as Speaker of the House. The average over the course of her speakership was 24 percent approval.