House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi chided members of the media for questions about her retirement, saying reporters wouldn’t ask the same of her fellow male legislative counterparts and suggesting that the journalism profession was marked by sexism.
Mrs. Pelosi first pointed to the fact that when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner won big majorities, they were featured on the cover of Time magazine.
But when Democrats won the House — nothing, she said, Politico reported.
“[W]hen we won the House — and that was largely an initiative that I started around 2000, to take us to a place where we would win the House — that was a big thing,” Mrs. Pelosi said, Politico reported.
“I was never on the cover of Time magazine, even though I was the first woman to be [speaker]. Isn’t that a curiosity?,” she said. “Republicans win and Boehner is on the front of Time magazine. Mitch McConnell wins and he is on the front to Time magazine. Is there a pattern here? But as a woman, is there a message here? Is there something that we’re missing?”
Mrs. Pelosi then turned a critical eye on a reporter who asked about her plans for Capitol Hill retirement.
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“When was the last day that any of you said to Mitch McConnell, when they lost the Senate three times in a row, … ’Aren’t you getting a little old, Mitch? Shouldn’t you step aside?’ Have you ever asked him that question? I don’t understand why that question should even come up,” she said, Politico reported. “It just is interesting, as a woman, how many times that question is asked of a woman and how many times that question is never asked of Mitch McConnell.”
Mrs. Pelosi’s suggestion of sexism comes on the heels of a similar accusation from White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, who responded to critical reports about her need to step down in the same fashion — by claiming the criticisms were due to her gender.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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