Pelosi stays off Sunday talk shows

WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under fire for statements about torture, rejected invitations to hit the Sunday talk show circuit.

Network sources told The Hill that "Meet The Press" on NBC, "This Week" on ABC, "Fox News Sunday" and "State of the Union" on CNN all reached out to the speaker.

The Hill was told Pelosi has a family event to attend and planned to travel to Phoenix for her granddaughter's first communion.

On Thursday, Pelosi told reporters at her regular weekly news conference that an aide who had been briefed on waterboarding by the CIA passed the information on to her in 2003. In April, she said the CIA kept her in the dark about interrogation methods.

Pelosi gave an interview to CNBC on Thursday, which also aired on MSNBC and NBC.