House Democrats are frustrated with former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) for her public comments on her party’s campaign failures, saying she’s undermining the leadership of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), Axios reported.
“She needs to take a seat,” a senior Democratic lawmaker told Axios.
A member of the Congressional Black Caucus said Pelosi is not being “respectful” of Jeffries even though the minority leader “has been tremendously graceful and respectful of her.”
“I understand that this is a difficult transition for her, not being the leader, but she is not,” the lawmaker continued. “She needs to understand what her new role is.”
Pelosi, in an interview last week with the New York Times, said “there may have been other candidates in the race” if Biden had “gotten out sooner.” She also said Harris “would have done well in [an open primary] and been stronger going forward.”
“Making scattershot comments is not just unhelpful, it’s damaging,” the senior lawmaker said.
Pelosi’s comments fueled tensions inside the Democratic Party, as the Biden and Harris campaigns point fingers at each other for Republicans’ election sweep last week, according to Axios.
“How did you spend $1 billion and not win? What the f—?” a former Biden staffer said of the Harris campaign, while a person close to Harris’s team described “the 107-day Harris campaign” as “nearly flawless” and Biden’s campaign as “the opposite.”
