(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Out-going House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Thursday that after failing to deliver House Democrats another majority she would step down from pursuing another leadership role.
“I will not seek re-election to democratic leadership in the next Congress,” she said. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.”
Current House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.—who, at 83, is a year older than Pelosi and four years older than President Joe Biden—also signaled his intention to step down from leadership.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the current Democratic caucus chair, is the odds-on favorite to become the new House minority leader in January.
Like the San Francisco-based Pelosi, Jeffries’s district representing Queens and Brooklyn is safe blue territory, meaning he can safely push an exremist agenda but is not likely to command the same authority as the elder stateswoman he replaces.
From telling concerned citizens that they would have to pass the Affordable Care Act to know what was in it, to waging two sham impeachment campaigns against former President Donald Trump and freezing Republican leadership out of the sham Jan. 6 committee, Pelosi has ruled with an iron fist, much to the delight of her base and to the chagrin of those who continue to seek bipartisan unity in the legislative process.
Prior to her announcement, some speculated that she might retire altogether, amid a recent swirl of personal scandals, even though she recently notched another decisive re-election victory.
According to Politico, rumors swirled that her activist daughter, Christine, might be in line to replace her if she were to retire—although outspoken San Francisco state legislator Scott Wiener might also be in the mix.
Original story below:
As GOP Clinches House Majority, Washed-Up Pelosi to Announce ‘Future Plans’
(Headline USA) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is expected to address her plans with colleagues on Thursday in the wake of Democrats ceding control of the House to Republicans in the midterm elections.
“The Speaker plans to address her future plans tomorrow to her colleagues. Stay tuned,” Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted late Wednesday. He did not provide additional information about the time or location of the announcement.
The speaker “has been overwhelmed by calls from colleagues, friends and supporters,” Hammill said, and noted that she had spent Wednesday evening monitoring election returns in the final states where ballots were still being counted.
Despite claims from many Democrats that the narrow loss remains a referendum in favor of their leadership, Pelosi’s party is projected to finish with the same number of seats next term that Republicans have in the current term—213.
If GOP senate candidate Herschel Walker prevails in a Dec. 6 runoff election in Georgia, that means that the 118th Congress will effectively be a mirror inverse of the 117th, with the exception that the GOP may also fill two current vacancies of Florida Democrat Reps. Ted Deutch and Charlie Crist.
While the tepid outcome is a let-down for many in the GOP, who expected a more robust rebuke of the Biden administration’s failed policies, it is a clear-cut mandate for 82-year-old Pelosi to make her graceful—or not so graceful—departure.
She has been wracked with personal scandals in the past year, many of them surrounding her philandering husband, Paul, who was arrested for driving under the influence, forced to short-sell his Nvidia stock amid accusations of insider trading and, most recently, discovered half nude in the company of a male “friend” who assaulted him with a hammer after police arrived on the scene.
Although Pelosi—who is leading her current race in San Francisco by about 84% of the overall vote with 87% of the ballots counted—has given no indication that she would resign outright, doing so would allow her to focus on her damaged marriage and open the door for her to trade stocks with impunity.
It might also draw heat from any Republican-led hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021 uprising that would focus on her role in overseeing Capitol Police actions and rejecting National Guard assistance in advance of the protest.
In response to Pelosi’s own ruthless partisanship in weaponizing House rules against her political opponents, incoming Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has pledged to strip at least three Democrats of their committee assignments, and would likely freeze Pelosi out of crucial leadership discussions as she did him.
By announcing her decision, Pelosi could launch a domino effect in House Democratic leadership ahead of internal party elections next month as Democrats reorganize for their new role as the minority party in the new Congress.
Pelosi’s leadership team, with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, are also making decisions about their futures.
All now in their 80s, the three House Democratic leaders have faced restless colleagues eager for them to step aside and allow a new generation to take charge.
Democrat Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California have similarly moved as a trio at times, all working toward leadership roles themselves.
First elected to the House in 1987, Pelosi has long been ridiculed by Republicans as an out-of-touch San Francisco liberal while steadily rising as a fundraising powerhouse and particularly oily politician when it comes to gaslighting the public.
Her own Democratic colleagues have intermittently appreciated but also feared Pelosi’s powerful brand of leadership.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at truthsocial.com/@bensellers. Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
