Pelosi talks up 'San Francisco values' at fundraiser: 'That's what we're about'

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New questions over Pelosi's future ahead of midterms

Several Democratic House candidates have said they would not vote for Pelosi as speaker. Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer says both parties will set themselves up for 2020 after the midterms.

Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader hoping to reclaim the speaker's gavel after the midterms, over the weekend staunchly defended “San Francisco values” -- saying “that’s what we’re about.”

At a fundraising event on Sunday, Pelosi, D-Calif., spoke to supporters and discussed her “vilification around the country” in recent weeks. As in 2016, Pelosi is a regular feature in Republican attack ads against House Democratic candidates. Republicans often try to link the liberal San Francisco powerhouse to rank-and-file Democrats, but Pelosi made clear Sunday she's proud of her political profile and home city.

“I don’t mind when they say things about me like, that I’m a liberal, I like that, I like that,” Pelosi said, drawing cheers from the crowd. “But when they say San Francisco liberal, as if to make it sound like it’s something negative, them’s fighting words. Don’t attack my city. Don’t attack my city.”

She added: “Fighting words. But San Francisco values, that’s what we’re about.”

Pelosi went on to tout San Francisco, saying it is “the city of Saint Francis, the city whose anthem is the song of Saint Francis, make us an instrument of thy peace. Darkness, light, despair, hope.”

“Our hearts are full of love for everyone in our country,” Pelosi said. “This is going to be an opportunity for us to be unifying—to respect the first branch of government, the legislative branch, the Congress.”

Pelosi, who has made a series of bold predictions in the days leading up to Tuesday’s midterm elections, has said Democrats “will win” the House.

“Let me say this. Up until today, I would’ve said, ‘If the election were held today, we would win,” Pelosi said on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” last Tuesday. “What now I’m saying is, ‘We will win.’”

Also last month, Pelosi, despite warnings that the party may be overconfident, said that the potential “blue wave” on Tuesday could be a “tsunami.”

If Pelosi’s predictions are correct, she could reclaim her post as speaker of the House.

“My colleagues have honored me with titles and this or that, and I say ‘I’m very honored,’” Pelosi said Sunday. “But I have no bigger honor than to walk onto the floor of the House and speak for the people of San Francisco.”

Should House Democrats net the necessary 23 seats to take back the majority from the GOP, Pelosi has said she could commit to a “transitional” term as speaker.

“I see myself as a transitional figure,” Pelosi told The Los Angeles Times last month. Pelosi has yet to provide details on when this “transitional” speakership would expire, but has said she would want to stay through 2020.

“There has to be a transition at some point in all of this,” Pelosi said last month. “I’m not going to make myself a lame duck.”