Nancy Pelosi Wishes Mitt Romney Were President Instead of Trump

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi jokingly said she would rather have Mitt Romney running the country than Donald Trump.

Speaking at a Q&A session hosted by The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday evening, the Democrat suggested she would now prefer to see the man she once branded a misogynist as America's leader.

"Wouldn't it be nice if he were president of the United States?" she said of Romney, prompting a round of applause from the crowd.

Her comments harked back to those she made in November 2016, when she once said, "Doesn't Mitt Romney look good to us now? Oh my God," in response to Trump's surprise election victory, The Washington Examiner reported.

In 2012, Pelosi hit out at Romney during an interview with John Stewart's The Daily Show."Respect for women or not? That's another 'Mittology,' that he's a champion for women. Please," she said.

"Women have just about the most to lose, whether you're a woman of childbearing age or senior woman, in my case," she said of a potential presidency under Romney.

But more recently, the Democrat suggested she wouldn't be opposed to a Romney candidacy. In 2015, Pelosi told The Hill she didn't see him defeating Hillary Clinton but hoped the GOP chose him to try.

Asked if she believed Romney could beat Clinton in the election, Pelosi said: "No, no. I mean, he might be a nice person — no offense, no offense — [but] let's save you time."

"Let me put it this way — I hope he's their nominee," she added.

Since Trump assumed the presidency, Pelosi has rebuked him on a number of occasions, suggesting in June that Democrats should give the president time to "self-impeach" before mounting any efforts to remove him from office.

"It's a big deal to talk about impeachment," Pelosi said, according to multiple sources relayed to Politico. "I think he's going to self-impeach."

However, in recent weeks, it appears that the House minority leader has managed to wield some influence over the president.

Indeed, Trump sent out a tweet at Pelosi's request to reassure that recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would not be subject to deportation during the six-month window Congress has granted, in order to come up with a legislative solution to Trump's discontinuation of the program.

His tweet came shortly before a dinner meeting with Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York on September 13, which was described by the Democrats as "very productive" in a joint statement.