Nancy Pelosi’s Office Rejects Reports She is Eyeing an Ambassador Position if Republicans Win House

Some news outlets, including the New York Post and Fox Business, reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been eyeing a new job if Republicans take back the House majority in the midterm elections. Sources told Fox Business that the Speaker is looking to become the United States ambassador to Italy.

On Tuesday, Pelosi denied such claims as “utter nonsense.”

“The Speaker has no interest in this position and has not discussed it with anyone in the White House,” Drew Hammill, who is Pelosi's spokesman, told the Daily Mail.

Monday’s claim suggests that if Republicans take back the House, Pelosi, 82, will step down from her minority leader role and has asked President Joe Biden to appoint her to the position of U.S. ambassador to Italy.

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo made the claim that Biden is holding onto the ambassador position for Pelosi, which Pelosi’s spokesman has called “utter nonsense.”

“This is the second time Maria Bartiromo has proceeded with reporting anonymous rumors about the Speaker's future that have no merit,” Hammill said. “And the second time she has failed to ask us for comment before airing or publishing this utter nonsense.”

U.S. ambassadors, comments Mary Kramer—who was appointed as ambassador to Barbados in 2003 by President George W. Bush—are typically career foreign service officers, or a private-sector citizen who has “knowledge and experience regarding the culture or business interests of that county, or who have a skill set needed to solve problems in the country.”

The US embassy in Italy is based in a mansion in the heart of Rome called Villa Taverna. Villa Taverna dates back to the fifteenth century, and boasts a historical garden, valuable art from the classical antiquity era up until the nineteenth century, seven acres of ground, a pool, tennis court, movie theater and a three-story wine cellar.

An ambassador role would require a Senate confirmation, and thus far Biden has had 101 of his ambassadorship posts confirmed by the Senate, while 27% of those posts remain unconfirmed.

Pelosi was seen vacationing in Italy over the summer, relaxing at the residence of Andrea Bocelli’s luxury Alpamare Beach Club in Tuscany, and going to mass at the Vatican and meeting Pope Francis.

Pelosi has a lengthy career in politics, having first been elected as a Democratic National Committee member in 1976 and holding that position until 1996. She has served as a representative for California since 1987 and is the first Italian-American to lead the U.S. congress.