Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) revealed that she believes Rahm Emanuel, a longtime Democratic official who most recently served as U.S. ambassador to Japan, will run for president in 2028.

In an interview with the Free Press on Friday that largely focused on Emanuel and his political future, Pelosi was asked whether she thought he would run in 2028 as the Democratic Party looks to bounce back from a disastrous 2024.

“I think so,” Pelosi said.

Emanuel, while easing the speculation of a presidential run in the interview, also signaled that he’s not leaving politics anytime soon.

“I’m not done with public service. I’m hoping it’s not done with me,” he said.

Emanuel was most notably chief of staff for former President Barack Obama from 2008-2010, as well as serving as an adviser in former President Bill Clinton’s administration and as mayor of Chicago for eight years.

Following the 2024 elections that saw Republicans secure the trifecta, Emanuel has appeared on podcasts and various TV shows including The View to offer his assessment of where the Democratic Party stands and how it must change.

In an appearance on The View in mid-May, Emanuel was adamant that Democrats needed to move past former President Joe Biden, who at the time had been delivering some public remarks. He urged Democrats to focus on issues such as healthcare, education, and cost of living, as opposed to “what Joe Biden did or didn’t do.”

Those comments came just days before Biden’s shocking cancer diagnosis, which Republicans have targeted for possible investigations into as questions swirl about who was running the White House during his term.

Emanuel has suggested that Democrats must move beyond cultural issues such as gender ideology as well, telling Bill Maher in March that he doesn’t “want to hear another word about the locker room, I don’t want to hear another word about the bathroom.”

Instead, he added, “You better start focusing on the classroom.”

He echoed these remarks and defended them in the Friday interview, saying Democrats “can’t look weak and woke.”

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“We can’t get distracted by the cultural issues and lose sight of what Americans care about and what impacts them, which is a shot at the American dream,” he said. “We have to be able to stand up to the interest groups. We can’t look weak and woke, we need to be grounded and centered.”

Emanuel concluded, “I’ve shown I’ve got the strength to say my views, and one of the key things about being a president is you got cojones, and you got strength.”