House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has pushed back against warnings that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is undermining his leadership.
Critics have argued that, despite stepping down from her House leadership position, Pelosi is still unofficially calling the shots in the Democratic Party.
It’s been widely reported that it was Pelosi who forced President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid.
However, Jeffries disagreed with allegations that he’s merely a proxy puppet for Pelosi’s ongoing leadership.
An anonymous member of the Congressional Black Caucus told Axios that Pelosi wasn’t being respectful of Jeffries.
Another anonymous senior Democrat said, “She needs to take a seat.”
However, neither source was specific about what Pelosi was doing to undercut Jeffries.
Jeffries disagreed with the critics, at least publicly.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Jeffries said:
“I think Speaker Emerita Pelosi has been incredibly respectful of the entire leadership team.
“It’s an honor to stand on the shoulders of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an incredibly consequential public servant in the history of America, and to continue to work closely with Speaker Pelosi and, of course, Jim Clyburn and Steny Hoyer,” Jeffries said.
Pelosi is widely believed to have pushed Biden out of the 2024 presidential race by saying she thought he needed to step aside.
She even gave Biden an “ultimatum” to force his hand on dropping his re-election campaign.
She then criticized him for not doing it sooner and complained about the lack of a competitive primary.
It could be hard to imagine Jeffries being able to flex such influence.
Instead, Jeffries tried to stay out of the controversy.
“I think that President Biden will go down in history as one of the most consequential presidents of all time,” Jeffries said.
“And I was thankful for all of the work that we were able to do together.
“It was a selfless decision to pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I think she ran with it and did the best job that she could under incredibly challenging circumstances in a little over 100 days.
“She came close, but we fell short,” he said.
“And we’ll have to figure out, do an after-action analysis.”
It’s a valiant effort to spin what actually happened: Harris never had what it takes to get elected president.
She was clearly made vice president due to identity politics, not because she was most qualified.
Democrats’ wokeness and desperation to beat President Donald Trump cost them the presidency.
Jeffries and Pelosi would both do well to face that fact before the next election.
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