--- title: Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching Trump Would Be a Waste of Time description: House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said during a speech at Hearst that impeaching President Donald Trump would be a waste of time. canonical: https://time.com/5029752/nancy-pelosi-impeach-trump/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-17T18:20:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:17:50.107Z article:section: Politics og:title: Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching Trump Would Be a Waste of Time and Energy og:description: "He's just not that important" og:url: https://time.com/5029752/nancy-pelosi-impeach-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt604eb41ca47e3b5c/6988e6547cdbac99a5d5aef3/nancy-pelosi.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Nancy Pelosi Holds Her Weekly Press Conference At The U.S. Capitol og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching Trump Would Be a Waste of Time and Energy twitter:description: "He's just not that important" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt604eb41ca47e3b5c/6988e6547cdbac99a5d5aef3/nancy-pelosi.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching President Trump Would Be a Waste of Time and Energy > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 17, 2017 6:20 PM UTC  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](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 17, 2017 6:20 PM UTC Two days after [a group of Democrats made moves to impeach President Donald Trump](http://time.com/5026052/democrats-impeach-donald-trump/), 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). “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) _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.” ```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"}}]}] ```