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Almost since PolitiFact\u2019s 2007 founding, it has been covering Representative Nancy Pelosi, who announced her retirement, effective in January 2027.<\/p>\n
We first fact-checked the former House speaker on August 25, 2008, when she characterised then-presidential candidate Barack Obama as a state legislator with a history of bipartisanship, a claim we rated Half True. In all, we have rated Pelosi\u2019s statements 56 times on Truth-O-Meter, with a median rating of Half True.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Political analysts consider Pelosi, 85, one of the most effective legislative leaders in recent US history. With small margins, Pelosi was mostly able to keep her caucus united behind legislative goals on healthcare, the environment and other issues.<\/p>\n Her ability to raise money for Democrats was one reason she remained as minority leader when she lost her speaker\u2019s gavel after the 2010 midterms and ascended again to speaker in 2018, when the Democrats won the majority. Pelosi lost the speakership when the GOP won the chamber in 2022. She left her leadership position but remained as a rank-and-file member.<\/p>\n Pelosi was known for her effectiveness outside the public eye \u2013 in Capitol cloakrooms and private dinners. Republicans targeted her sometimes awkward rhetorical style in front of television cameras, combined with her representation of one of the nation\u2019s most liberal districts, in San Francisco.<\/p>\n On the internet, Pelosi has been falsely accused of being drunk (many, many times); of spending extravagantly on her hair; of falling; of crying in public; of being arrested; of palling around with drug kingpin El Chapo; of calling Americans stupid; of being expelled from the House; of being divorced by her husband; of being arrested and disappeared by US marshals; of committing treason; and of being executed.<\/p>\n When a hammer-wielding intruder attacked her husband, Paul, in their home in 2022, conspiracy theories flourished, fanned by President Donald Trump and others, including that the entire episode was a \u201cfalse flag\u201d event.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a rundown of memorable Pelosi moments in recent fact-checking history.<\/p>\n Pelosi and Trump have a long-running rhetorical feud. When a reporter asked Trump about Pelosi\u2019s retirement announcement hours after she made it, Trump called her \u201can evil woman\u201d.<\/p>\n In 2018, Trump falsely said Pelosi \u201ccame out in favour of MS-13\u201d, the criminal gang. Pelosi had criticised Trump for using the term \u201canimals\u201d during an immigration meeting, but she hadn\u2019t said anything positive about MS-13.<\/p>\n In 2020, after Pelosi dramatically ripped up a paper copy of Trump\u2019s State of the Union address from her seat behind the president, Trump said: \u201cI thought it was a terrible thing when she ripped up the speech. First of all, it\u2019s an official document. You\u2019re not allowed. It\u2019s illegal what she did. She broke the law.\u201d<\/p>\n We rated that\u00a0False. Pelosi ripped up her own duplicate copy of Trump\u2019s address, not the official version sent to the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act, so it would not have been illegal to destroy it.<\/p>\n Pelosi earned a Mostly True for saying in 2017 that Trump\u2019s first-term tax bill \u201cwould have cut his taxes by $30 million in 2005\u201d.<\/p>\n But she earned a False in 2020 for saying Trump is \u201cmorbidly obese\u201d. Trump had told reporters that he was taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19, an approach that mainstream doctors called dubious; she said it was not a sound idea for someone \u201cin his, shall we say, weight group\u201d. Even if Trump was fudging his official height and weight, he would have needed to be substantially heavier to meet a level of morbid obesity.<\/p>\n The pair\u2019s most bitter exchanges revolved around January 6, 2021, the day Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as Congress formally counted the 2020 electoral results. Rioters entered Pelosi\u2019s office and called for her as they marched through the Capitol.<\/p>\n Trump has repeatedly said he requested \u201c10,000 National Guardsmen\u201d to provide security at his supporters\u2019 January 6, 2021, rally, but that Pelosi \u201crejected it\u201d. As early as February 28, 2021, we rated that False. In subsequent fact-checks, we found no new information to support Trump\u2019s assertion about Pelosi and National Guard troops.<\/p>\n One of her biggest policy legacies is the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which was Obama\u2019s top policy priority in 2009. The bill dominated the early political debate of his presidency, and Pelosi, as speaker, had a key role in securing Democratic support for Obama\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n Pelosi accurately discussed some policy differences between Democratic and Republican healthcare bills, such as the Democratic proposals\u2019 protection for people with a preexisting condition.<\/p>\n But we also found truth in one Republican criticism involving the bill \u2013 that Pelosi had said Democrats \u201chave to pass their terrible healthcare bill so that the American people can actually find out what\u2019s in it\u201d. That was close to what Pelosi really said, though that Republican Party of Texas\u2019s synopsis ignored her comments about why the legislation made her proud.<\/p>\n Between 2000 and 2024, Pelosi raised $86.6m for her campaign committee and an additional $51m for her leadership political action committee, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign finance information.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Pelosi v Trump: Ripped speech, policy fights, January 6<\/h2>\n
Pelosi played a central role in landmark healthcare legislation<\/h2>\n
Pelosi was a star fundraiser, but we found one of her money claims misleading<\/h2>\n