Nancy Pelosi tells media not to cover the president’s criminal probes ‘morning, noon and night’

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday they would have more viewers and readers if they focused less on the president’s criminal investigations and more on the common ground Republicans and Democratic lawmakers are working on for American families.

The California Democrat was asked about recent revelations that President Trump had directed his former attorney Michael Cohen to work in coordination with the National Enquirer to kill negative stories about him during the campaign, paying off women alleging affairs with him. Some experts have suggested this amounts to campaign finance law violations.

But Ms. Pelosi avoided any talk of impeachment, instead saying the Justice Department and special counsel probes will continue to lead where they may, dismissing questions at this point about what repercussions should be sought against Mr. Trump.

“I wish that the press would spend a lot more time on what we need to do here to meet the needs of the American people instead of morning, noon and night allegations about the president,” Ms. Pelosi said.

As the leading candidate to be the next speaker of the House, Ms. Pelosi said reducing healthcare costs and fixing the country’s infrastructure are things the president said he wanted to do during the campaign and is “common ground” with Democrats’ priorities.

Yet Democrats have already erected roadblocks.

Mrs. Pelosi’s Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, wrote a letter last week to Mr. Trump saying Democrats won’t cooperate on infrastructure unless the president agrees to take steps to counter global warming. If Mr. Schumer holds to that promise, it would likely scuttle chances on the one big area of cooperation all sides had identified after the election.

Mrs. Pelosi urged a focus on those substantive issues nonetheless.

“There are other things going on that are newsworthy and I think you would have more viewers and readers if you address concerns that people have rather than just this ongoing, ongoing coverage of what is current with the president from one day to the next,” she added.