Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been instructed to vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday, a decision she criticized as a “sharp departure from tradition.”
An email sent to Pelosi’s office on Tuesday stated that the room would be re-keyed and reassigned for “speaker use.”
This action followed the appointment of Patrick McHenry as House speaker pro tempore, which occurred shortly after the historic removal of Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a vote on Tuesday.
“With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol,” Pelosi said in a statement, referring to McHenry (R-NC).
Pelosi served as the Speaker of the House on two distinct occasions: first, from 2007 to 2011, and then again from 2019 to 2022.
Staff members of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) assisted in clearing out Pelosi’s office late on Tuesday, as reported by the outlet. Items including a television and bags were observed outside the office before being removed.
“Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems to be important to them,” Pelosi added. “Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important for the American people.”
Pelosi was not present during the House vote that led to the removal of McCarthy as House Speaker, a vote instigated by members of his own party.