House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday rebuffed critics who claim former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been undercutting his leadership of congressional Democrats.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who is widely believed to have played a critical role in President Biden’s decision to bow out of the 2024 race and has been outspoken about what went wrong for the Democrats on Nov. 5 — has been accused of indirectly dissing the New York congressman.
A senior Democrat griped to Axios, “She needs to take a seat,” while a member of the Congressional Black Caucus claimed, “I don’t think she is being respectful of him.”
But Jeffries countered on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “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,” the Democratic rep said.
Pelosi, 84, led House Democrats from 2003 until early 2023, when she passed the baton to Jeffries, 54.
Despite her absence from a formal leadership position, Pelosi clearly continues to maintain pronounced influence among House Democrats and within the party broadly.
Shortly after the election, Pelosi caused a stir by telling the New York Times that Biden, 81 should have exited the race sooner and bemoaned the lack of a competitive primary.
Jeffries asked if Biden dropped out too late, and refused to address the controversy head-on.
“I think that President Biden will go down in history as one of the most consequential presidents of all time. And I was thankful for all of the work that we were able to do together,” Jeffries said.
“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.”
Privately, some Democrats contend that Pelosi may have been part of the problem with the Dems’ disastrous election showing and is now trying to save face.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who had backed up Biden during the Democratic revolt against him over the summer, conveyed some of that sentiment to Politico.
“She really tried to — what’s the word I’m looking for? — she embraced this, ‘She’s the Godmother, she’s the enforcer,’ ” he told the outlet. “And now she’s blaming Biden. Well, you can’t have it both ways.”
Jeffries, who has reportedly tried to take up some of the blame for Democrats’ setbacks in private, praised the new generation of leaders within the party.
“At the same period of time, you know, as House Democrats, we’re proud of the new leadership team. We’re looking forward to confronting the challenges that we have to face on behalf of the American people,” he said.
“We’re going to focus like a laser beam on dealing with the issues related to working-class Americans and middle-class Americans and those who aspire to be part of the middle class.”
Jeffries also briefly opined on some of President-elect Donald Trump’s selections to staff up his next administration, implying that several of them are unqualified.
“The incoming president throughout the campaign promised the American people that we would have the best economy, the best border security and the best administration possible,” he said.
“The question that has to be asked: Is this the best that we can do in the context of some of these nominations? Is this the very best that America has to offer for a moment like this, with so many challenges that we confront? Of course not,” Jeffries said.