09/20/2026
Nancy Pelosi told senior House Democrats in a closed-door meeting that she preferred to see Donald Trump imprisoned rather than impeached, according to multiple officials who were present.
The remark came during a tense exchange with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York, who had again pressed the Speaker to open an impeachment inquiry following the release of the Mueller report. Pelosi told Nadler and four other committee chairs, “I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” according to Politico, which first reported the remark citing multiple Democratic sources familiar with the meeting. NBC News later confirmed the quote through a congressional aide who was in the room.
That aide said Pelosi’s comment was consistent with her position that Trump needed to be removed electorally in 2020, and that impeachment without bipartisan support could backfire and cost Democrats their House majority. Pelosi’s spokeswoman, Ashley Etienne, declined to confirm or deny the remark directly, telling reporters only that the Speaker and the chairs had a productive meeting about the state of play with the Mueller report.
At the time, Pelosi was resisting mounting pressure from within her own caucus. An ABC News analysis found nearly 60 House Democrats, roughly one in four members, wanted to open proceedings. Adam Schiff of California and Richard Neal of Massachusetts were among those who believed an inquiry should wait until the caucus was more unified.
Pelosi’s position ultimately shifted. She backed an impeachment inquiry later that year, and the House impeached Trump twice during his first term, once in December 2019 over the Ukraine affair and again in January 2021 following the Capitol riot. The Senate acquitted him on both occasions. The 2019 prison remark, made privately and never repeated publicly, remains one of the sharpest comments Pelosi is reported to have made about Trump during her tenure as Speaker.
