House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is clear that she is in control of her Party and that the progressive freshman Democrats in Congress do not hold that much influence.
The California Democrat dismissed the appearance of the power of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other “self-described socialists” as being only “like five people” in the Democratic caucus during a “60 Minutes” interview on CBS News Sunday.
(Video: CBS News 60 Minutes )
“You are contending with a group in Congress: over here on the left flank are these self-described socialists, on the right, these moderates,” host Lesley Stahl began. “You yourself said that you’re the only one that can unify everybody.”
“The question is, can you?” Stahl asked.
“By and large, whatever orientation they came to Congress with, they know that we have to hold the center, that we have to go down the mainstream,” Pelosi replied.
“They know that?” the host asked, adding “but it doesn’t look like that” when Pelosi confirmed, “they do.”
“It looks as if it’s fractured,” Stahl said.
In another segment. Stahl continued to question the 79-year-old speaker about the power of the freshmen lawmakers.
“You have these wings, AOC and her group on one side,” Stahl began, to which Pelosi interjected: “That’s like five people.”
“No, it’s the progressive group, it’s more than five,” Stahl responded.
“Well, the progressive– I’m a progressive,” Pelosi shot back.
During the interview, Pelosi also stressed that she “reject[s] socialism as an economic system.”
“If people have that view, that’s their view,” she said. “That is not the view of the Democratic Party.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway noted the influence of the radical new Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez, and Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib during an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday, suggesting that “there’s trouble in Pelosi’s paradise.”
‘Trouble in Pelosi’s paradise’: Kellyanne tells Chuck Todd the magazine cover girls are running the show https://t.co/oAr0rGkXlX
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) April 14, 2019
“There’s a great of frustration among some of the rank and file members who represent more moderate districts and frankly who represent districts that Donald Trump won in 2016. They’re very frustrated,” she said. “They’ve been to the White House. They’ve talked to people like me quietly, saying they wish the radical freshmen who get all the magazine covers and all the ink and air time …”
President Trump criticized the “puff piece” on Pelosi, tweeting that under her leadership, Democrats have passed “no meaningful legislation.”
Such a “puff piece” on Nancy Pelosi by @60minutes, yet her leadership has passed no meaningful Legislation. All they do is Investigate, as it turns out, crimes that they instigated & committed. The Mueller No Collusion decision wasn’t even discussed-and she was a disaster at W.H.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019
Stahl pressed Pelosi on the accomplishments – or lack thereof – of Democrats in Congress.
“One of the complaints we’ve heard is that you don’t reach across the aisle. Because it seems like right now nothing is getting done. You pass things, whatever it is, it dies in the Senate…,” she began.
(Video: “60 Minutes” via CBS This Morning)
“Nothing died. Nothing died. We’re together 100 days,” Pelosi quickly corrected the interviewer. “The fact that we even passed them in the House is a victory. Let’s figure out the places, figure out where we can find common ground. There’s always been bipartisan support for DREAMers, bipartisan support for gun safety, bipartisan support for infrastructure.”
“But why doesn’t anything get done?” Stahl asked.
“Because we just started. We just started, We just started with three months since we’re in office,” the Democrat leader argued.”
When Stahl reminded her that Trump has been in office for more than two years, Pelosi quickly noted, “And we’ve been here three months,” reminding her of the “power of the Speaker.”
“Hey, may I introduce you to the idea of the power of the Speaker is to set the agenda? We didn’t have a Speaker who would bring a gun bill to the floor. We didn’t have a Speaker who would bring DREAMers issue to the floor,” Pelosi declared.”
“We do now. And that’s a very big difference,” she added. “The power of the Speaker is awesome. Awesome.”
BREAKING: It appears that @SpeakerPelosi and her entire leadership team are no longer in charge of the House Dem Conference.
Pelosi now answers to and serves the new House Dem Leadership:
Speaker Ocasio-Cortez
Majority Leader Omar
Majority Whip Tlaib
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 13, 2019
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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