Pelosi: I would have retired had Clinton won

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is publicly declaring what she’s been saying privately since after the election: Had Hillary Clinton won the presidency, the longtime Democratic leader was planning to ditch Congress.

“If Hillary had won, I was ready to go home,” Pelosi told reporters Friday, saying she now is motivated to stay to protect Obamacare. “If she were there, then I would not worry about that.”


Pelosi told some colleagues behind closed doors last month that she had intended to retire had Clinton won, which was first reported by POLITICO. And sources close to Pelosi said she’s made similar comments to members “many times” privately.

But her remarks to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast is one of the first times she’s made the declaration publicly.

Pelosi, perhaps more than anyone other than Barack Obama, was integral to the passage of Obamacare and said she feels like it's her responsibility to stop Republican attempts to dismantle the health care law.

“None of us thought Hillary would win. We all knew she would win,” Pelosi told reporters. “It was really shocking that somebody like Donald Trump could be president of the United States. ... But anyway, that motivated me to stay.”

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Pelosi beat back a challenge to her leadership after the November election, besting Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) to hold onto her spot as House minority leader. But Pelosi, 76, has faced lingering questions about when she’ll leave since she lost the speakership in 2010.

The California Democrat wouldn’t say Friday whether she intends to stay in the post in 2018, a job she first won in 2003, telling reporters she’s making decisions “one day to the next.”