--- description: House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said during a speech at Hearst that impeaching President Donald Trump would be a waste of time. title: Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching Trump Would Be a Waste of Time and Energy image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt604eb41ca47e3b5c/6988e6547cdbac99a5d5aef3/nancy-pelosi.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Congress](/tag/congress/) ## Congress Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching President Trump Would Be a Waste of Time and Energy  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 17, 2017 6:20 PM CUT  Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference November 9, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference November 9, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 17, 2017 6:20 PM CUT Two days after [a group of Democrats made moves to impeach President Donald Trump](http://time.com/5026052/democrats-impeach-donald-trump/ "undefined"), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said during a speech that impeaching Trump would be a waste of time and energy, because “he’s just not that important.” Pelosi, who spoke at Hearst’s offices on Friday, said Democrats’ priority should not be removing Trump from office, according to [tweets from _Cosmopolitan_ features editor Emma Barker](https://twitter.com/emmajune/status/931561224076185600 "undefined"). “Republicans would love for us to make our campaigns about the impeachment of Trump,” she said. “That’s not what it’s about. It’s about the well-being of American families.” The longtime congresswoman has publicly denounced impeachment efforts in the past. Earlier this month, [she told](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/05/pelosi-trump-impeach-house-democrats-244567 "undefined") _Politico_ that impeachment proceedings are “not someplace that I think we should go.” During her appearance at Hearst, according to Barker’s tweets, Pelosi also said that impeaching former President Bill Clinton was “a frivolous activity.” Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching Trump Would Be a Waste of Time ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5029752/nancy-pelosi-impeach-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5029752/nancy-pelosi-impeach-trump/"},"headline":"Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching President Trump Would Be a Waste of Time and Energy","datePublished":"2017-11-17T18:20:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:17:50.107Z","description":"\"He's just not that important\"","url":"https://time.com/5029752/nancy-pelosi-impeach-trump/","keywords":["Congress","politics","nancy pelosi","Donald Trump","Impeachment","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt604eb41ca47e3b5c/6988e6547cdbac99a5d5aef3/nancy-pelosi.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt604eb41ca47e3b5c/6988e6547cdbac99a5d5aef3/nancy-pelosi.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nancy Pelosi Holds Her Weekly Press Conference At The U.S. Capitol","caption":"Nancy Pelosi Holds Her Weekly Press Conference At The U.S. Capitol","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5029752/nancy-pelosi-impeach-trump/","name":"Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching President Trump Would Be a Waste of Time and Energy"}}]}] ```