Speaker Pelosi: I am not a Washington insider

DENVER -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is not a “Washington insider,” she insisted Saturday.

Asked whether she classified herself as a “Washington insider” at a briefing sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Pelosi answered, “Oh, absolutely not. No.”

Pelosi is an 11-term lawmaker, the daughter of a prominent Maryland political family and third in the line of succession for the presidency but not, she claimed, an “insider.”

Pressed for an explanation, Pelosi said that being an insider is about a person’s “state of mind,” not their tenure in politics.

“Inside, outside – you have to know the territory so you can work it, but you never become a part of it”, she said.

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