GOP Official Dragged for Tweet Bragging ‘We Finally Fired Pelosi’: ‘She Is Happily Retiring You Pathetic Hack’

Sarah RumpfNov 7th, 2025, 7:05 pm
 
Nancy Pelosi middle finger

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik File

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Thursday that she would not be seeking re-election, and a top GOP party official sparked a wave of criticism and mockery for a tweet he posted celebrating her retirement.

The 85-year-old has represented her San Francisco district for nearly four decades, becoming the first female leader of either major party in 2003 as Minority Leader, then the first female Speaker of the House in 2007 when the Democrats took the majority. She led the House Democratic Caucus until 2011, and then after eight more years as minority leader and a second stint as Speaker from 2019 to 2023, she stepped down for the next generation of Democratic leaders, starting with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

Demonized on the right perhaps even more than she’s ever been lionized on the left, Pelosi has been a favorite target of Republican attack ads, even before she ever held the speaker’s gavel.

Just in the 2010 election cycle alone, the GOP spent more than $65 million on ads attacking Pelosi and launched a “Fire Pelosi” website (archived version from 2010 here) that featured a photo of her against a background of flames.

Real subtle.

Jack Pandol, the deputy executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the GOP party apparatus responsible for helping elect Republicans to the House of Representatives, recycled that tagline from the 2010 ad campaigns in a tweet he posted after Pelosi announced her retirement.

“We finally Fired Pelosi,” he wrote.

The response was swift and overwhelmingly critical or mocking, with numerous commenters pointing out that this was an odd flex the week Republicans took an absolute thrashing at the ballot box, Pelosi was voluntarily retiring on her own, and in general ridiculing the idea that Republicans could claim any victory points whatsoever in an octogenarian Democrat in a deep blue district deciding to retire.

Several reactions included videos of people pretending to help subway trains start or stop by running alongside them pushing, to illustrate the complete lack of involvement they viewed the GOP as having in Pelosi’s pending exit from Congress.

A sampling of additional tweets is below.

 

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.