Nancy Pelosi responds to Michelle Obama’s claim that America isn’t ready for woman president, asks ‘why not?’

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday pushed back on Michelle Obama’s recent claim that Americans are “not ready” to elect a woman president.

When asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper whether she agreed with the former first lady’s comments, Pelosi questioned why a woman commander-in-chief would be out of the question.

“Well, I hope — I mean, I respect her and I know that view is one that we all are saddened by, but we — I think we have to change. The fact is that I‘ve heard every excuse in the book, you know, like, ‘I‘m not sure a woman could be commander-in-chief.’ Well, why not?” she asked. “‘Well, I served in the military.’ Well, OK. And so? So do women serve in the military.”

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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi being interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (Screenshot/CNN)

The former House Speaker added that she “always thought we would have a woman president long before we had a woman speaker of the House,” and that she “didn’t set out to be speaker.”

Following up on Pelosi’s statement, Cooper asked why she believed there would be a female president before a female speaker of the House.

“Because I thought the American people were much more ready for a woman president,” Pelosi responded. “Just the thought of it is so exciting and the message it sends to the world. Faster than there would be a woman speaker as this place, I mean, it’s shall we say — it’s male-dominated for hundreds of years and so when I ran for leadership, they said, ‘Who said she could run?'”

“Oh, poor babies. I’m not waiting for you to tell me I can run,” she added.

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Pelosi argued that there is a “pecking order” of men in Washington who feel that they are entitled to certain positions within the government, and that it “still exists really on the Republican side.”

Nancy Pelosi pushed back on former first lady Michelle Obama’s assertion that Americans are ‘not ready’ to elect a female president. (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Annual Summit; Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Closing out her thoughts on the potential of a female president, Pelosi told Cooper that young women have been approaching her with their aspirations of sitting in the Oval Office one day.

“Now, people say to me, kids say to me, students, they say, ‘It’s nice you were speaker, but I‘m going to be president,’” she recalled. “I said, ‘Well, I certainly hope so.’”

On Nov. 14, Michelle Obama said Americans are “not ready” to elect a woman to the White House, citing Harris’ 2024 presidential election loss to Trump. Obama made the comments to a crowd of women at the Brooklyn Academy of Music while promoting her new book, “The Look.”

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“As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” she said.

“That’s why I’m like, ‘Don’t even look at me about running, because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not.'”

Former First Lady Michelle Obama on the set of her podcast in June, 2025. (Michelle Obama YouTube channel)

The former first lady went on to say that she does not believe men in America are comfortable with a woman leading them.

“You know, we’ve got a lot of growing up to do, and there’s still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman, and we saw it,” Obama said.

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Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.