One of the stories overshadowed by the presidential election outcome from last week was the losses suffered by Democrats in the House of Representatives and what it could mean for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) future. During an interview with Mobile, AL radio’s FM Talk 106.5 on Monday, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, called the possibility of Pelosi losing her leadership post a “silver lining,” which comes out of the apparent friction with House Democratic caucus.
“That is one of the silver-linings in this nightmare we’re going through, is to know Nancy Pelosi could be thrown overboard by the people she has been promoting,” Rogers said. “I’m not in that conference. I don’t know how it is going to work out. I’ve learned never to underestimate her. But having said that — I saw what happened to John Boehner with numbers that were not as bad as what she’s got, and they are livid right now. You’ve got the non-socialist wing of the Democrat Party, which is not that big, that is just furious that all the liberal agenda items they’ve pushed — like Medicare for all, like the Green New Deal, like socialist legislation — specifically, the election bill you just talked about — almost got them beat in their individual districts.”
Rogers noted pressures from the left-wing of the House Democratic caucus as well, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Rogers predicted if Pelosi were to lose her post, it could mean the end of leadership posts for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) as well.
“They kept the majority but barely kept the majority, and because of that hard-left turn they took,” Rogers explained. “Then you’ve got Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her bunch, which by the way, she added to her numbers in their conference who are livid that these other people are turning their back on what they see as where the Democrat conference should be going. In order for Nancy Pelosi to get her chairmanship in the last Congress, the current Congress the last time around, she had to pledge that she would not serve more than two terms as Speaker and that she would support this socialist agenda that this left-wing had.”
“Well, she did those two things,” he continued. “She almost lost the majority over it. Now she has got the rest of the conference mad at her. The left-wing is now because of the circumstance, and I think they’re going to be looking for a change in leadership, and I don’t think it is going to end with Nancy. If they throw her overboard — I think they’ll throw Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn overboard, too because they kind of work as a team. I don’t know who will replace them, but you can bet it will be more left-wing than those folks.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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