House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is confident the Democratic Party’s prospects ahead of the November midterm elections, and predicts she will be chosen as the party’s leader in the lower chamber if they win.
“I believe we would win if the election was today,” Pelosi told the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board. “I believe I will be speaker if we win.”
[Related: Young people could propel blue wave for Democrats: Poll]
Multiple Democrats, representing a growing insurgency within the party, have both directly and indirectly questioned Pelosi’s leadership. Some have indicated they will not vote for her to be leader should they win the House majority. Rep. Tim Ryan, the Ohio Democrat who challenged Pelosi in 2016, said recently he has “not closed the door” on another Pelosi challenge.
Pelosi warned that requesting President Trump release his tax returns “is one of the first things we’d do.”
“That’s the easiest thing in the world,” Pelosi said. “That’s nothing.”
Government watchdogs and left-leaning advocacy groups have called on Trump to release his tax returns since he announced he was running for president.
Congress does have the legal authority to request the president’s tax records, but would face a major legal battle if they did so.
Earlier this month, the New York Times published a wide-ranging report outlining the president’s financial and business history, alleging shady tax schemes, borrowed money from his family’s fortune, and in some cases, outright fraud.
Trump dismissed the story as a “hit piece” and “boring.”
