House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., brushed off the some of the clout of some of the more left-wing members of her party during an interview that aired Sunday evening.

Pelosi, appearing on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” was asked about her ability to unify Democrats in the House with the growth in popularity of the far-left flank of the party, including Democratic socialists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.

“That’s like five people,” Pelosi said. Host Lesley Stahl pushed back on that notion, pointing out that there is a larger “progressive” movement in the party.

“Well, the progressive — I'm a progressive. Yeah,” Pelosi responded.

During the interview she also said that congressional Democrats know and are on-board with the notion of being part of the “mainstream.”

“By and large, whatever orientation they came to Congress with, they know that we have to hold the center. That we have to be m— go down the mainstream,” she said.


The House speaker said she rejected the brand of socialism that some like Ocasio-Cortez preach, saying it is not the view of her party.

“I do reject socialism as an economic system,” Pelosi said. “If people have that view, that's their view. That is not the view of the Democratic Party.”

Despite Pelosi’s insistence that the far left has not gotten a foothold in the Democratic Party, 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a self-described socialist, is polling in second place at 21.2% in an average of polls by RealClearPolitics.

[2020 poll: 77 percent of Democrats back socialism, but most voters don't]