Pelosi says future of her leadership role 'unimportant,' but is a 'master legislator'

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday again dismissed assertions that she should resign her long-held leadership post, saying, “I am a master legislator.”

Pelosi, who has been the House’s top Democrat since 2007, has faced repeated suggestion that she step down since 2010, when Republicans took control of the chamber in a wave election.

“Self-promotion is a terrible thing, but somebody has to do it,” the California lawmaker told “Fox News Sunday. “I am a master legislator. I know the budget to the nth degree ... I feel very confident about the support I have in my caucus."

Other House Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to replace the 77-year-old Pelosi, most recently after modest House gains in the 2016 elections, largely the result of Democrats failing to articulate a message of economic prosperity to the middle class, particularly those in middle-America.

And rumblings among Democrats resurfaced this year after the party failed in four special House elections to take a Republican-held seat.

Pelosi acknowledged that the candidates’ largely anti-President Trump message “had some influence” on the losses but insisted that Washington Democrats’ new “A Better Deal” message, unveiled last week, will help the party going forward.

“I don’t want to go into that,” Pelosi said Sunday. “I want to go into our new plan.”

She suggested that congressional Democrats, not the party’s presidential nominee, control the message in so-called midterm elections.

Democrats would need their own wave elections to win more than 40 GOP-held House seats to retake control of the chamber. However, Pelosi also dismissed questions about whether her party would win enough seats and her running for House speaker.

“That’s so unimportant,” she said. “What is important is that we have a better deal. We have unity in the party. We are proud of the fact that the party has diverse thinking and we can accommodate that.”