House Dems Plot To Remove Nancy Pelosi As Speaker After Debacle Last Night: Report
House Democrats are shell shocked over their terrible performance last night. The polls were wrong, as any Trump fan knew, but still, the reversal of fortune is striking.
The Dems lost seats but worse for them they are on the losing side of some key issues and that will hurt or ruin their future.
Nancy Pelosi has other problems – a plot by House Dems to remove her as Speaker. No one should be surprised that after last night the Dems are questioning Pelosi’s leadership.
But this time they may actually do something about their Pelosi problem. “It’s time for Democrats to elevate a new generation of leadership in both the House and the Senate,” one Dem lawmaker said.
From The Hill:
Stung by their party’s disappointing showing at the polls Tuesday, two moderate House Democrats say they and other centrists are privately discussing a plan that was unthinkable just 24 hours earlier: throwing their support behind a challenger to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
The two Democrats told The Hill on Wednesday that they were reaching out to their colleagues about backing one of Pelosi’s top lieutenants, Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), for Speaker.
“He’s the only one prepared and positioned” to be Speaker, said one of the Democratic lawmakers. “He bridges moderates and progressives better than anyone. And most importantly, he’s not Nancy Pelosi.”
The grumbling reflects a remarkable shift in internal Democratic thinking in the immediate wake of Tuesday’s elections. Pelosi and Democratic leaders had promised to build on their majority — some estimates were in the double digits — but the early returns revealed a different reality: Not only did they fail to protect a number of their most vulnerable members, they had not picked off a single Republican incumbent heading into Wednesday afternoon.
Instead, lawmakers were left licking their wounds and questioning the messaging and strategy decisions heading into Tuesday’s polls.
Pelosi has become an early target for moderates representing suburban districts worried that their leadership’s strategy hurt such members ahead of the election.
One of the two lawmakers who spoke to The Hill said a number of Democrats representing suburban and exurban districts had been talking about the need for a change.
“It’s time for Democrats to elevate a new generation of leadership in both the House and the Senate,” the lawmaker said. “Americans are clearly afraid of ‘socialism,’ want safe streets and neighborhoods, and to vote for people who they believe will help put more money in their pockets. While Democratic policies can adequately address those issues, our messaging mechanism clearly cannot.”